Since the return from winter break, Ms. Jacquelyn Collins’ Art Foundations students have been studying Abstract Art theories through the practice of making abstract paintings. The paint medium is a traditional one – house paint. House paint worked well for the large paintings because of its ‘liquidy’ consistency. There was also a wide range of vivid colours to work from.
It was a unique project in terms of the materials and each student’s individual goals. The students were allowed to use any of the techniques they learned in the past semester, and everybody did something different. “It just depends on what feeling they’re coming to the canvas with and what colour they choose to be inspired by,” said Collins. Abstract art is not about looking for images, but playing with shape, movement and colour to create a bigger picture instead. When shown to an audience, the imagery may change for every person.
Janna Grant, a grade 10 Art Foundations student shares that the inspiration behind her project is trying to represent the sense of ‘abstract.’ “With my piece, in a way, it is as though it is the centre of the universe. The deliberate brushstrokes represent all the chaos in lives and how people hardly have any control in how their lives are going to play out. However, there is also the beauty of the abstraction. There’s a lot of movement, and acrylic paint gives it a good effect and solid colour. The medium is easy to use when you want to create motion and pattern. The colours blend nicely as well.” said Grant.
There is also lots of appreciation and gratitude for the teachers that made the projects possible by bringing in the acrylic house paints. Instead of going into the landfill, it was reused as materials needed to make into works of art. Once completed, the paintings will be hung up in the foyer. However, finding space may be problematic, seeing as a lot of them are largely scaled.
