Marc Smith
Visual Art Teacher
IB DP VISUAL ART
Summer 2014- 50% of my students achieved top scores of 7!
Here are some examples of how I teach and encourage students to make links between subjects. We looked at the disaster painting "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. The students listened to two very different music compositions: "Ave Maria" by Mozart and "Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima"(1959-61) by Krzysztof Penderecki . They then re-arranged the paintings with a composition that suited the music. Please listen:
Title : Guernica
Media: Oil on Canvas
Date: 1937 (May 1st-June 4th, Paris)
Artist: Pablo Picasso
"Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima"(1959-61) by Krzysztof Penderecki - "Chaotic composition, disordered"
Ave Maria: "ordered, the implied triangle suggests a funeral pyre. The outstretched hand suggests the ascension of the soul."
Examples of student exhibition work
Comparative Study
The IB curriculum requires students to compare & contrast artworks from two different cultures. Here is an example of one of my students who has scored 19/20 for their art analysis.
CAS & IB
To start the year I took all my IB Art students on an overnight art trip to the Great Wall. They hiked, drew and made art together in a variety of new mediums, including making their own scrolls. The students worked with the artist in residence Elizabeth Briel and had a locally grown organic lunch.
1 week into the Diploma Programme
working with our Artist in Residence
I have organized over 60 educational art trips. My trips are designed to let the students take the lead.
Students constructed their own scrolls. Can this traditional medium have a role in the 21st century? We think so
Mark making experiment
Student drew shadows using chalk then returned the next day to photograph them
This is a video performance piece by a DP2 student. After exploring the theme of "growing up and leaving home" in her painting, using the metaphor of the butterfly and coccoon she was inspired to take her work one step further.