25 May 2022
This term we welcome back Amy Joy Watson as our 2022 Artist in Residence, in the Junior School. Amy is a renowned Australian artist, residing here in Adelaide; and our boys are experiencing their second opportunity to learn from her expertise and share their art making with her.
Recognised for her artworks throughout Australia, Amy has exhibited at Hugo Michell Gallery, Sydney Contemporary Museum of Art, and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Amy has been awarded Art residencies in New York and Japan and created major public artworks for The City of Unley, City of Adelaide, Sydney and many Australian universities.
Amy’s artworks often involve finely cut balsa wood to create geometric forms and delicate hand-stitching of segments of her sculptures. These sculptures, created with triangles and geometric shapes, provided the boy’s with inspiration.
Amy is sharing her skills and expertise with each year level from Reception to Year 6, demonstrating how to build and create abstract sculptural forms with an assortment of different materials. This enables every boy to see how Amy creates her artworks and the inspirations she draws from nature and geology.
Our Year 6 students are creating three-dimensional octahedrons, created out of plastic and fabric. The boys also experienced making octahedrons with painted cardboard and mixed media. The intricate processes and techniques of building sculptural artworks are producing beautiful results which are challenging and inspiring the boys.
The Year 5 boys are creating abstract forms with thick card formed with equilateral triangles. These are painted with a wash of watercolour, applying the same techniques that Amy creates with her colours. The boys are creating vibrant and colourful three-dimensional sculptural forms and are extending their learning in the importance of surrounding spaces in sculpture.
Year 3 and Year 4 students are creating large three-dimensional abstract forms with thick card and hot glue guns. By asking lots of questions and exploring the materials, boys are following Amy’s building techniques with a hands-on experience that they are finding exciting and interesting. Washes of colour, by following Amy’s painting techniques, are creating enormous colourful geometric forms.
Our Year 2 boys are creating geometric prisms and cubes with card and watercolour washes. Their attention to detail, delicate placement and techniques in watercolour displays a high level of skill from the boys. Suspended in the air with colourful thread allows the boys to see art displayed in a different dimension and extend their learning of kinetic art.
The Reception and Year 1 students are creating imaginative creatures with tangram shapes. By watching Amy, boys are applying coloured washes on their card shapes and arranging each segment with care, until a creature is formed.
All our students are inspired by Amy’s presence and display gratitude and appreciation of the opportunity to work alongside her and are engaged in their learning. Our boys are recognising the skills and techniques, the care and thought, that are required to form Amy’s style of art, and the boys are truly inspired by her.
Sally Houston
Junior School Art Teacher