This short week included an important school visit by companies around Oman, and we were pleased to have an opportunity to show off some of our finished artworks to a wider audience. Our recent displays included finished abstract artworks from Grade 9, clay fantasy fruits from Grade 7, clay practice from an ongoing unit in Grade 10, and several artworks by our DP students, including Eaton and Lizzy.
Grade 7’s finished clay fruits show that we can take inspiration from the world around us, and that we can creatively combine existing objects to make something that has never before been seen. Techniques that were practiced including making a pinch pot, making a hollow ball, using scoring and slip to join pieces together, and applying layers of glaze.
Grade 9’s work came from our Methods of Abstraction unit and explored all the ways in which we can take real-life objects and simplify, camouflage, or distort them in an artwork. Al Reem experimented with layering acrylic, and discovered that by dripping acrylic drawing ink into wet gloss medium, she could create a beautiful, luminous effect. Azra wanted to try acrylic pouring, so I brought some WD-40 from home and showed her how it can be added to acrylic to produce oily-looking “cells.”
In Grade 10, students first made several practice pieces using a combination of wheel and hand-building techniques. These were then fired and glazed so that the class could better understand the process of making a bowl. Now, everyone is using these learned skills to make their ceremonial vessels that will explore either a fantastical or real-world ritual, from the present day or another point in history.
