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Glorious Descent

Glorious Descent
Acrylic on canvas 60 x 40cm

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Art Club October / November 2016

For the past month or so I have been facilitating the very exclusive 'Art Club' for a local Newcastle Primary School. Every Wednesday morning before school a group of very wide eyed and bushy tailed  students aged 6-12 gather to release their inner artistic genius, with of course a few squeals, jokes and tumbles in between.


I was excited to lead 'The Royalty Project' which involved researching different cultural leaders and their traditional dress throughout the world. We looked at Indian Princesses, medieval Queens, Sultans, Indian Chiefs and Ancient Egyptian kings, paying particular attention to the kind of head dress they would wear. We then designed our own head piece and thought about what represented our identity and what we valued. Using collage material we built our own crowns and hats before choosing a friend and painting their portrait as an 'Art Club Royal'. The process was very amusing and messy and it was interesting to see how the children combined different cultural symbols into their design (including of course pikachu).



On our final day we held an Art Club photo shoot, which involved building a throne from the donations of trash n treasure in the classroom. I was very impressed to witness one girl lay out the crown jewels that were to be dressed on the king or Queen upon ascent to the throne. One by one each student was robed in a dressing gown and dressed in jewels before assuming their rightful place on the doona covered thrown. With their hand made creations atop their head they all made very stylish and entertaining rulers.













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