It was the great French artist, Henry Matisse who said drawing was putting a line around an idea. That is how we start our Year 8 project to Zhujiajiao water village; we take the students to explore part of our host culture, and though we use observational drawing as a means to record, it is being in the situation, being able to smell the food, taste the local cuisine and interact with the place and people and hear the range of dialects and language that give us a sense of what a Chinese water town is really like. Using both traditional art technology (sketchbooks and pencil) and our digital devices, the students are encouraged to capture the environment as they participate in it. This beats any Google search or holiday snap! Students get to experience the environment in situation like an artist, being there as it changes – seeing the crowds of people moving back and forth, observing the subtle changes of light being reflected on the water as the clouds cover the sun.
Through a range of drawing activities and photography, students gather and record as much first-hand observations as possible, ready for the follow up lessons in image selection, tone, compositional arrangement and personalisation of the project. Look out later on throughout the semester for the work that follows and develops from the starting point of the hands-on experience.
Head of Visual Arts – Martin Cockram