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Visual Arts journey to the beach

The Arts, Visual Arts, Foundation Year

By the end of the Foundation year, students describe experiences, observations, ideas and/or feelings about arts works they encounter at school, home and/or in the community.

 

Students use play, imagination, arts knowledge, processes and/or skills to create and share arts works in different forms.

Exploring and responding

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explore how and why the arts are important for people and communities

Developing practices and skills

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use play, imagination, arts knowledge, processes and/or skills to discover possibilities and develop ideas                    

Creating and making

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create arts works that communicate ideas

Presenting and performing

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share their arts works with audiences

Annotations

 

1. Explores visual conventions including colour and composition.

 

2. Uses watercolour paints to create the background of the composition.

 

3. Uses a pale green watercolour paint to cover half of the composition, overscored by 3 magenta pastel lines.

 

4. Uses soft pigments that give a sense of lightness and luminosity.

 

5. Uses a pale yellow watercolour paint to cover a quarter of the composition, with a small circle of small grey circular shapes.

 

6. Uses different processes and materials to create a layering effect.

 

7. Uses a mix of pale blue, grey and green toned watercolour paints for the last quarter of the composition, overscored by 3 dark blue wavy lines.

This work sample contains the name of an Aboriginal person who has passed.

Annotations

 x
1

Describes how an Australian First Nations artist* used her paintings to depict the significance of her Country.

 10 14 20 45
2

Describes own artwork as showing the journey of going to the beach.

 20 22.5 16 47
3

Describes the pink lines on the artwork as representing the movements of scootering.

 25 28 15 45
4

Describes the choice of green background as representing trees.

 31 33.5 17 47
5

Describes a collection of small grey shapes as sunscreen.

 37.5 39.5 15 45
6

Describes the yellow as representing sand.

 40.5 43 17 47
7

Describes the blue wavy lines as representing diving movements and the blue background as the water.                    

 49 64 15 45
Transcript

[Teacher] Why is it important for Sally Gabori to make her art?

 

[Student] So she can remember where she has been.

 

[Teacher] And what place does your art show?

 

[Student] Going to the beach.

 

[Teacher] And tell me about what the pink lines mean.

 

[Student] Scootering.

 

[Teacher] And what about the choice of green in the background here?

 

[Student] The trees.

 

[Teacher] And talk to me about this

part of your art.

 

[Student] The sunscreen, and it’s this yellow bit is the sand.

 

[Teacher] Okay, and talk to me about these lines.

 

[Student] They’re the diving marks.

 

[Teacher] Okay, and where are you diving?

 

[Student] On the lines.

 

[Teacher] On the lines, where abouts? What’s this showing

this blue here?

 

[Student] The water.

 

* “Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s artistic career began in 2005, when she was in her early eighties. Before this time, she had little exposure to painting of any kind, however, she quickly became acknowledged as one of Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary artists. Although Gabori’s paintings may be perceived as pure abstraction, her practice was inherently referential, with paintings depicting topographical reference points, places, physical features and totems with deep significance to the artist, her family and her Country.”

 

Bruce McLean, Curator, Indigenous Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery (Museum of Contemporary Art, 2024).