1 October 2017
The surfaces in the studio have been christened with acrylic. Dried paint is everywhere! In another big push for a piece for auction, my kids pulled off a large-scale collaborative painting that shows off our pride of place.
In this project, 30 students across Years 10 and 11 worked together to create a whimsical lakeside scene of Hanoi featuring some of the city’s most eminent cultural and historical landmarks, with the school’s colourful campus nestled among them.
The image was initially composed as a digital collage. The pieces were scaled to proportion then printed and traced onto card. Students worked with acrylic paints and fine liner to add value, colour, and detail to each piece, which were subsequently cut and pasted into the final piece. The painting’s title is a translation of Thang Long– the name Emperor Lý Thái Tô gave to the capital when it was founded a millennium ago.
Before paint could meet the bristles of a brush, the challenge for me was to engineer a project that would result in a cohesive image produced by 30 students with less than three hours of studio time allotted. The solution was a single image adapted from a slide in a previous PowerPoint presentation, manageable pieces of which they could work on individually before bringing together.
Right up to our deadline, some of my students committed to resolving their pieces and adding finishing touches during lunch and after school. Once the pieces came together, I took pleasure in the gasps of students who made it all possible. Kudos to our technician Danny, as well, for his role in making it happen.
Snippets from the school's Instagram
5 Likes, 0 Comments - TH School (@thschool.edu.vn) on Instagram: "Our Year 10s and 11s worked on a collaborative painting for auction of Hanoi featuring many things..."
14 Likes, 0 Comments - TH School (@thschool.edu.vn) on Instagram: "Congratulations to all our art students who contributed work for the Family Day auction. Altogether..."