Visual Art

Our ethos is to provide a creative environment for students to express thoughts and feelings in response to the world around them and gain an appreciation and understanding of visual culture.

Middle school introduce and allow students to practice and develop skills in a range of media while creating artworks, individually and collaboratively.

In Upper and Senior School students further develop their skills and ideas centred on their strengths, abilities and interests.

The focus is on the development of original artworks.

We are focused on exploring and experimenting with a wide variety of media, techniques, skills, processes and styles using a variety of stimulus materials, inquiry approaches, techniques and processes to enable students to find their own means of expression.

Students experience a well-resourced environment in which they can explore a range of ideas and approaches to creating artworks.

Students are encouraged to participate to develop their potential and advance their skills and understandings.

We promote student achievement, individuality, enjoyment, creativity and independent learning.

We aim to nurture and develop creativity and innovation in the Arts for life long enjoyment.

Year 7

Students in Year 7 are introduced to the fundamental skills involved in communicating visual ideas. Students develop their art language through structured activities that develop their observational drawing and design development skills which lead to resolved artworks in both two and three-dimensional form.

Year 8

Students are introduced to the Visual Arts through an exploration of basic art elements and the development of fundamental drawing and painting skills that enable students to develop confidence in realism.

Project themes provide cross-curricular links across both two and three-dimensional forms.

Year 9

Year 9 Visual Art program continues to build on student's previous skills while new studio areas and more complex art and design challenges are introduced. Students investigate the style and approach used by selected artists to expand their artistic use of media, techniques and processes. In Year 9 students gain a deeper understanding of the art process, exploring both realism and abstraction. Students learn to write about art using more sophisticated art language. Students may choose from two art options:

9ARTA – Expressive Art
9ARTB – Creative Design

Year 10 Visual Arts (General Course)

This is a highly practical course designed to provide students with a stimulating, engaging and hands-on learning experience. Students will use simple processes to develop artwork in a relaxed and enjoyable environment. Students will use collage to combine unusual elements as a creative starting point for developing artworks using range of basic studio techniques and processes. This course lays the foundation for the student's life-long journey of creative awareness and artistic exploration.

Year 10 Visual Arts (Intensive Course)

This course is designed for students who have a strong or growing interest in the Visual Arts and are keen to develop their artistic skills further. This intensive course will help students develop their perceptual skills. Students will create detailed drawings using careful observation of complex subject matter. Students will learn about representation, spatial awareness and compositional design. Advanced drawings techniques will lead to resolved work using fundamental drawing skills and studio processes.

Year 11 (General Course)

In the Year 11 Visual Arts general course, students develop artworks primarily concerned with their own experiences and explorations of their immediate environment. They explore ways to draw and develop artworks that show a fundamental understanding of art language and appreciation of the visual arts. This is a highly practical course that allows students to explore their creativity using a range of materials and guided studio techniques. Independent exploration of ideas is promoted across a broad range of art forms that enable students to develop artworks that are relevant to their own lives.

Unit 1 - Inspirations(Semester One)
Unit 2 - Investigations(Semester Two)

Year 11 (ATAR Course)

In the Year 11 Visual Arts ATAR course, students explore different approaches to art making while investigating notions of personal, social and cultural identity. There is an increasing demand for visual literacy as students learn to perceive, understand, interpret and evaluate visual information. The course encourages students to develop problem-solving skills that result in artworks, which show higher levels of media manipulation, skill and technical proficiency.

Unit 1 - Differences(Semester One)
Unit 2 - Identities(Semester Two)

Year 12 (General Course)

In the Year 12 Visual Arts general course, students develop artworks inspired by personally relevant themes and the investigation of other artists' work. They develop original ideas using art language while appreciating other art forms and artistic practices. This is a highly practical course that allows students to develop artworks using a range of techniques, materials and studio explorations. Innovation and independent inquiry are promoted across a broad range of art forms, which enable students to create artworks that show resolution through inquiry and design development processes.

Unit 1 - Inspirations(Semester One)
Unit 2 - Investigations(Semester Two)

Year 12 (ATAR Course)

Students engage in traditional, modern and contemporary media and techniques working across a broad range of studio areas and art forms. The course promotes innovative practice. Students are expected show independence in realising artworks that investigate challenging ideas. The Year 12 Visual Arts ATAR course allows students to develop aesthetic understandings and critical awareness through their engagement of their own art practice and the research of other artists' work.