Art Visual

SELF PORTRAIT – CALLUM HAYDEN, YEAR 11 DIGITAL DESIGN ON CANVAS

MIKE SLEEMAN Head of Art

Visual Art students have been enthused and inspired by a range of field trips to the Gallery of Modern Art, The Queensland Art Gallery, The Tweed Regional Gallery at Murwillumbah and our excellent regional gallery at Bundall, where they have viewed touring exhibitions like the Asia Pacific Triennial, Ben Quilty’s ‘After Afghanistan’ works, ‘Energies’ 2015 , “Cutback – Surfing through Art” and the Margaret Olley permanent exhibition.

Years 9 and 10 have drawn inspiration for their practical artwork from the local environment – excursions to Burleigh Heads National Park and the City of Surfers Paradise providing source material, with the Year 11s exploring ‘The Self’ as a concept for their work, and the senior students seeking to ‘Make a Difference’ by addressing significant world issues in their art.

The Year 12 right-brain brothers presented two outstanding exhibitions of their own work (in April and July) in The St Alban’s Gallery. The work of our visual/spatial and kinaesthetic learners has kept our own gallery full of confrontational, engaging and raw artworks. The subject matter for each artwork is researched and developed by the artist, and the resultant work is designed to provoke a response and encourage viewers to take a stand on issues such as racism, consumerism and terrorism. Our Clocktower Gallery has become a most valuable focal point for the ultimate purpose of making art – to have it seen by the public.

Digital art has become a favoured media of expression in the Art Department and personal computers have become not only a powerful and necessary tool in the research and development of ideas, but are also invaluable in the production of both photoshop work and time-based imagery using software such as After Effects. Hamish Thomson, Jim Chapman, Lachie Vine and Sol Burke have produced some quality work in this field. The use of digital media allows students to analyse, deconstruct and interact meaningfully with their binary world.

A number of senior students recently had their work selected for “Energies”. This exhibition, curated by TSS art stalwart Stephen Eardley, and held annually at The Gold Coast City Art Gallery, presents works of the highest standard from secondary schools across South East Queensland. Representing TSS were Zac McFarlane, Max Statham, Brock Thornburgh, Harlan Norris, Tim Richardson, Hamish Thomson and Jack Klementsen. Art critics attending the opening night described their works as “having a strong conceptual base that drew on exciting and confident visual literacy skills… which use spiritual and emotional intelligence to communicate a personal focus”. The Energies exhibition can be viewed at http:// energies2015goldcoastsecondaryschools.blogspot. com.au. Zac McFarlane was subsequently invited to attend an Emerging Artists’ workshop day at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery.

Much of the exciting and original work students have created over the past year is available for viewing on the TSS art blogs located at: http://tssyr7art.blogspot.com.au http://tssyr8art.blogspot.com.au http://tssyr9art.blogspot.com.au http://tssyr10art.blogspot.com.au http://tssyr11art.blogspot.com.au http://tssyr12art.blogspot.com.au

The rising stars of Year 10 include Ethan Setchell, Jim Chapman, Jake Jones, Kyle Lowe, Lachie Vine, Kaimana Barry, Eddie Lam and Jordan Phillips, who all received academic excellence awards for their original and innovative design. Dougal Coleman, Daniel Bowen, Jaidan Jones, Tony Zhang, Sameel Vahidy, Charlie Hawkins and Piere Huang consistently produced quality work in Year 9. Their work and the work of others can be found in ‘The Harvest’ section of the 2015 Southportonian. The Years 7 and 8 cohorts are immersed in learning experiences that embrace a range of disciplines, including digital design, sculpture, painting, drawing, art appraisal and graphic design units that have been tailored to embrace the new Australian Curriculum. Our Boarding community continues to take advantage of Boarders’ Art prep, which runs most Wednesday evenings and can provide yet another avenue for personal tuition.

Kerrie Anderson will be curating an exhibition of Prep School Graduating students’ artworks in the St Albans Gallery in November. Long-time senior school teacher and art fixture Stephen Eardley is again the headline act at the Kirra Hill Gallery in November with an exhibition of ‘miniature’ works, which takes place just prior to his departure on well-earnt long service leave in 2016.