Art Festival - save the date !

Belltable 25th May 2023

Pat Normoyle

Advanced Art Level 6 along with Art Craft & Design L5 learners are busy producing a collaborative work of Art as part of their Work Experience. This is part of the exciting new Art Festival being run by the Visual Art Department which will open in May and will include an art exhibition, a selection of short films and a fashion show.

This Artwork was made as part of the Advanced Art and the Art & Craft courses for an in house Work Experience. The project was overseen by Course Coordinators Pat Normoyle and Jane Foley.

Positivity

The idea behind the work was to express the inclusion and diversity that exists in Limerick. Also, the learners wanted to express the positivity they felt exiting the Covid pandemic, by so they aimed to work in a more relaxed portrait style.

After a few meetings and much debate, the format was decided. The learners did not want the works behind glass or in frames as they wanted them to be ‘free’ to view without any props.

The portraits were created from photographs of ‘People from Limerick’ taken by the learners, with proper written consent from participants of course. A variety of different techniques were used, Drawing, Painting and Printmaking as well as various materials, Pencil, Paint, Pastels, Ink etc. The learners spent a day on working with each technique, so, a day on drawing portraits, a day on Painting portraits and so on. Each of the learners taking part in the work experience created approximately five works each.

Framing Workshop

The participants also took part in a framing workshop that week in ArtMad, John St Limerick. This gave them vital insight in to how artworks are properly displayed. Once finished, the artworks were spray varnished, this is to protect them over time. The works were then mounted onto pre-cut blocks of wood using spray glues. The final step was to arrange the works on the wall and to create a balance within the work that was visually pleasing to the eye. The portraits will be hung in the Belltable as part of the Festival.

The Level 6 learners also did a large portrait of wellknown Celebrity, Limerick Native and alumni of the Art & Design Course ‘Blindboy’. This will also be part of the Exhibition in May. The learners wanted to do a portrait based on a celebrity and decided on ‘Blindboy’ as ironically, he never does show his face. The work is made up of 96 separate pieces which were individually worked on by each learner, so each person did not know what the other was doing. It is a large and vibrant piece of work so don’t forget to put the date of 25th May in your Diary.

An awful lot of time and work has been put into these pieces. The groups worked really well as a Team when it was needed and they thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. This will serve them well as they progress onto their individual journeys, whatever path they may take.