Art Club #5

The portraits of Mr. Carruthers 

This art club we focused on portraits at the request of the participants. We had originally wanted to have one of the year twelve students pose for us, but those people who had been potential candidates were absent on the day. As a back-up plan, we asked our E.S.S. teacher, Mr. Carruthers,  to pose for us. Very unexpectedly, and very kindly indeed, he agreed to come along after a five minute staff meeting. He did warn us that he would be marking some student work, but that was okay, since we had wanted to keep this session rather quiet anyways. Year sevens, despite being wonderfully enthusiastic and very sweet, are also often loud, especially after school :)

While we waited, the organisers (ahem, me, Katarina and Ira) set up the tables into appropriate portrait formation, while everybody else played Heads Up on my phone. I'm sure some people would say that the atmosphere in our club is far too relaxed, but I actually find that's what allows people to enjoy it, even when sometimes the actual artwork is rather challengin. If we put too much pressure on the kids, then nobody would enjoy the actual process of creating artwork, as they would be far too concentrated on the destination to savour the journey. That's not what we want at all. We want to develop a love of art in them, and improve their skills organically, even if they make mistakes along the way.

We also briefly introduced them to van Gogh's portraits, with their distinctive style, and to Roy Lichtenstein, to inspire them in a way and give them ideas beyond their traditional techniques. They expressed a desire to try out pop-art, but as we had already settled on a variety of pastels, different ones for each table, we were reluctant to change, and did not have the required materials either. We did accumulate a possible project for future sessions though, and the idea came from the girls themselves, which is also very important.

I think that in the future, before beginning a task we could very briefly introduce them to an artist who has worked on that subject matter but with an unconventional style, or worked with that style, but with unconventional subject matter. I feel that it would not only be a source of inspiration, but it would also have educational value and would broaden their horizons in terms of knowledge and perhaps analysis of artwork if they wanted to go that far.

Everybody produced some very interesting work. You could definitely see every individual style showing through. The result was actually rather comical most of the times, in a good way. My personal favourite is the very bright one, with the almost neon pink lips, where it was suggested the subject looked rather feminine. To this, Alissa (the artist) replied that it's "the modern man".

It was very satisfying to see them ready to tackle a subject that many people instinctively shy away from - portraiture, but it was also very uplifting that a teacher would trust us enough to let us draw a portrait of him.