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Orange High School

Orange High School

Honour the Past; Create the Future

Telephone02 6362 3444

Emailorange-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Visual Arts

Visual Arts Heading

Mandatory Stage 4 (Year 7 or 8)

Students complete their mandatory Visual Arts Course in either Year 7 or Year 8. They are exposed to a range of forms and themes that range from the elements of art, Street Art, Aboriginal art, sculpture and printmaking, and digital media. The visual arts diary is an integral element of the mandatory Visual Arts Course, acting as a venue for investigating art materials and techniques, as well as studying the practices of artists, movements and ideas.

Stage 5 Elective Visual Arts (Years 9 and 10)

For Years 9 and 10, students may elect to study Visual Arts, providing a deeper engagement with artmaking and studying practices. The concept of the Body of Work is explored with students accomplishing pieces that are related by theme or form, with an array of themes that include;

  • Postmodern practices of blending text with two-dimensional forms and assemblage

    Digital artmaking practices

  • Subjective and cultural notions of personal journey and the genre of portraiture
  • Structuralist viewpoints of Neo-Surrealism and personal symbolism
  • Cultural perspectives of traditional and emergent urban culture.

 

The Visual Arts Diary is used extensively as a platform for structuring students' artistic intentions expressed through such forms as mixed media, assemblage, ceramic sculpture, traditional painting on canvas, wearables, altered objects and the study of key artists and movements to deepen student knowledge and understanding.

Students are expected to research artworks and artists which can inform their own artmaking practice; they connect with key content through the related visual art response types to construct critical evaluations and narratives about artworks, artist's issues and contexts to prepare the way for their Preliminary and Higher School Certificate studies in Creative Arts subjects.

 

Stage 6 Preliminary and HSC Visual Arts

The Preliminary Visual Arts Course offers expansive opportunities to experience varied forms and themes in Visual Arts and to build an understanding of different perspectives employed by contemporary and historical practitioners. The Higher School Certificate course has a focus on applied engagement with both analytical and interpretative practices and specialised artmaking practices.

In their Higher School Certificate course, students develop and submit a Body of Work executed in their chosen forms. The students of Orange High School demonstrate excellence in their Body of Work submissions through consistent achievement of commendable results. Students studying this course can further their studies at TAFE and a range of university courses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 7 and 8 

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Term 4

"The Elements of Art": 

Students investigate the elements of art and composition. They also focus on the use of their Visual Arts Diaries and their basic artmaking tools. Students then move on to a critical and historical study.

"Street Art":

After exploring the artmaking practices of a range of Australian Street Artists, students develop their proficiency in a range of different street style techniques. Through referencing the work of artists such as Psalm, Ha Ha and Miss Van, students also develop a mixed media painting that mimics a Melbourne laneway wall and use the techniques they have practised to create their own major piece.

"The Journey":

Students will investigate personal and cultural aspects of journeys they undertake in artmaking and study. The focus will be on using digital design programs developed into a mixed media grahic based work as a basis of symbolic representations of a personal narrative.

"Dia de los Muertos and Mexican Folk Art": 

Students begin the unit with guided critical and historical studies of the Inca basis of Mexican Folk art and the artmaking traditions of the Day of the Dead Festival. Students utilise their understandings to develop a body of work that includes a large graphic work in oil pastel, a sugar skull based 3D form that functions as a candle holder and finally a papier mache wall piece in the manner traditional Mexican "ofrend

as".

 

Year 9 

Term 1       

Term 2

Term 3

Term 4

 

"My Mind is a Map":

Students explore narrative as a metaphor for their minds through maps. Students investigate a range of artmaking conventions including printmaking and drawing to develop narrative focused meaning.

Students investigate the artmaking practices of Australian artist Barbara Hanra

han.

"S

treet Machine":

Students critically study the artmaking practices of artists working in ceramics that echo car forms.

They explore personification and symbolism through the development and execution of their own ceramic car forms, and reference the artmaking practices of Australian sculptor Margaret Dodd.

"Location"

Students explore the cultural and structural elements of social custom, Australian and local (Orange) identity, composition, colour, techniques and form. Students study the practice and technique of artists Chris O'Doherty, Peter Booth and Howard Arkley. Using a range of graphic drawing and painting techniques, students develop an artwork based on these artists' works.

"Portraits"

Through the historical and critical study of Leonardo da Vinci, Neo Surrealist Bob Dob and contemporary Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton, students inform their own artmaking practice to develop a mixed media portrait that references their choice of the three artists in focus.

 

Year 10 

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Term 4

 

"Journaling and Altered Books":

Students engage with a critical and historical study that informs their understandings of the genres of journaling and the development of altered books, investigating the practices of a range of artists. They begin their artmaking by interpreting the Visual Arts frames in the journaling style in their Visual Arts Diaries.

Students then select one of the frames as the focus of their execution of eight individual images (one and two page spreads) in a recycled hardcover b

ook.

 

"

Inner Workings":

With consideration of their deepening understandings of the Visual Arts frames (during Term 1) to inform their conceptual practice, and the strengthening of their individual vocabulary of visual language and forms, in their Visual Arts Diaries, students develop the symbolic subject matter that they can interpret into a 3 dimensional mask- based form that can be executed in papier mache, plaster or clay media. Students study the work of selected artists who use mask forms in their artmaking practice.

"Old Masters, New Visions":

The unit of study "Old Masters, New Vision" focuses on the modern interpretation of masterworks of Western (European) Visual Arts between Byzantine era to 1910 Art Deco era. Students will select an artwork with which they can make a statement about their own time and place. 

After a guided critical and historical investigation of the work of Keith Sagaki and a range of other Artists, students develop their understandings of the stylistic features of appropriation. They focus on the work of Keith Sagaki to develop their own appropriated image that is stylised to a lesser or greater extent, depending on the students' own individual choices. The image is rendered with acrylic paint on a large scale, on stretched canvas.

"Tattoo Code":

Students explore the history and symbology of tattoo image making and then focus on individually selected key genres to deepen their understanding of the forms and symbols. After developing the conceptual basis of their artwork to underpin the imagery they choose to utilise, the students interpret their intentions as a large scale mixed media artwork on heavy duty wet media paper. Students ensure that meaning is not subverted by popular notions of tattooing so that the finished product truly represents a strong personal message.

 

Year 11

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

     

"Personal Totem":

This term sees the students identifying and developing their personal symbology and visual vocabulary. By studying the bodies of work of a range of contemporary artists, the students will begin to become more confident in their conceptual underpinnings and their understandings of the Visual Arts key content- The frames, the Conceptual Framework and Artmaking and Studying Practice.

Artists: Selected Australian contemporary artists from the Roslyn Oxley 9 website.

"10 Variations on a Theme":

In this term the students continue to develop their personal symbology as well as their technical and material competence. By studying the art works of a range of artists, the students will begin to become more confident in their ability to critically respond to and analyse artworks. Their understanding of the Visual Arts key content- The frames, the Conceptual Framework and Artmaking and Studying Practice, will also be enhanced.

Artists: Piet Mondrian, Claes Oldenburg,
Patricia Picc

inini

"

The Deep":

This term, students continue to develop and then refine their individual visual language, as well as their technical and material expertise. By studying the art works of a range of artists and different art issues, the students become increasingly capable of analysing and evaluating artworks and theories. With this comes an enhanced understanding of the Visual Arts key content- The frames, the Conceptual Framework and Artmaking and Studying Practice.

Artists: Rembrandt Van Rijn, Michael Johnson, Kathe Kollwitz.

 

Year 12

Term 4

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

 

Students proceed to devise and develop a conceptual and material understanding, reflective of the practices they have been pursuing in the Preliminary Course, as a starting point.

Students make decisions regarding images, forms, renderings and explorations, themes and intentions.

 

Teachers individually conference with students and
negotiate material aptness, technical experimentation and conceptual strength.

 

Using VADs, students explore the agencies of the Conceptual Framework as they relate to their individual artistic practice, key art issues, the frames and the practitioners their works are formed by.

 

Case Study 1:
Modernism;

Jackson Pollock, Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenheim, John Berger.

Case Study 2:

Conceptual Art ; Marcel Duchamp,
Sol Lewitt, Tristan Tzara.

After completion of the VAD holiday task, students reflect on their artmaking practice and intentions in their Visual Arts Diaries, with teacher feedback and advice.

 

Students continue to make decisions regarding images, forms, renderings and explorations, themes and intentions, with focus on achieving increasing proficiency

and accomplishment. By Week 2, a second artwork is in progress (minimum).

 

Teachers individually conference with students and
negotiate material aptness, technical experimentation and conceptual strength.

 

Using VADs, students continue to explore the agencies of the Conceptual Frame- work as they relate to their individual artistic practice,

key art issues, the frames and the practitioners their works are formed by.


Case Study 3:

Aboriginal Art; Papunya Tula, Geoffrey Bardon.

Case Study 4:

Framing Art Criticism and History.

Students continue to make decisions regarding images, forms, renderings and
explorations, themes and intentions, with focus on achieving increasing proficiency

and accomplishment.

 

Teachers individually conference with students and
negotiates material aptness, technical experimentation and conceptual strength, focusing on the alignment of artmaking proficiency.

 

Any divergence from the theme concept, form or practice is carefully considered, with consultation involving parents/care givers.

 

Using VADs, students continue to explore the agencies of the Conceptual Frame- work as they relate to their individual artistic practice, key art issues, the frames and the practitioners their works are formed by.


Case Study 5:

Dealing With Degas- Critical Modalities;

Edgar Degas,
Robert Hughes,

Kenneth Clarke, Anthea Callen,
Griselda Pollock.

Students refine and resolve conceptual material practices that they have been

individually developing.

 

Students now evaluate their Body of Work, making compositional decisions and focusing on the audience. Changes should enhance coherence by the first 2-3 weeks.

 

The teacher continues to closely and individually conference with students and provide advice with regard to material resolution, technical accomplishment, conceptual strength and layered meaning.

 

Students resolve and judge, with teacher assistance, the agencies of the Conceptual Framework as they relate to personal artistic practice,

key art issues, the frames and relevant practitioners using their Visual Arts Diaries.

 

By Week 5 the work is complete and preparations are being made for marking and storage.

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