Our Blog
Are you looking to further your artistic knowledge or become a better art teacher? Our blog posts are well researched and based on facts for students, teachers, parents or anyone looking to further their artistic knowledge. Put on the kettle and enjoy the reading...
On January 22, 2022, a contemporary Iranian-Australian artist of exceptional vision, who lived and worked in Adelaide passed away. He was 72. The image that heads this blog is untitled, yet even without a title to suggest its meaning, this sculptural installation has stayed with me since 1999...
The Winter Games - Celebrations and Inspirations
Something to celebrate as people from around the world come together in the spirit of fun and fair play striving to achieve personal best sporting performances: uniting countries across the globe for a positive purpose.
The Olympic ideals envisage...
Change is a natural part of life. However, children are experiencing a greater than usual number of these at the moment due to the CoVid-19 pandemic: restrictions in numbers and venues for birthday parties, limitations on seeing extended family, people wearing masks, lockdowns,...
Culinary Art is food art - preparing and presenting it in creative ways. Many of us enjoy watching MasterChef and other food-related programs on TV, or searching for video clips to learn more about presenting food. Could fun with food presentation, using art, encourage a better understanding and...
The creation of clothes to protect us from the effects of changing weather conditions, harsh elements in the environment and potential injury was born out of necessity but, even from the very earliest records, what was worn reflected gender, body type, age and location.
Understanding the...
Let's talk about different forms of transport and how to kids can draw them!
From the dawn of time people have travelled from one place to another. We may move in centimetres, inches, yards, metres, miles, kilometres or, digitally, in pixels on a screen. Through developments in technology, modes...
During the CoVid-19 pandemic, our homes did at times become our world. Whether by choice or, more likely, restrictions we became more acutely aware of how our place looks and feels, and the facilities it offers us when we can barely go anywhere else. This connection with Place may...
I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts during the Pandemic that these are strange and unsettling times to be living through. It happens from time to time that an artist’s work, created in another era altogether, and sometimes almost completely forgotten, can be found again when the...
Viewing some of the amazing and beautiful gardens in Japan during the Tokyo Olympics brought to mind the role art and design can play in the way we manipulate and interact with plants. I thought of Bonsai and discovered Niwaki. I wondered about how clipping and shaping plants into artistic...
This is a really important question, as the reality is, that even if you do not use any form of social media, the platforms are out there constantly changing the way the world at large is perceived.
For visual artists and designers, social media provides a bridging link between what they do, how...
Did you know that medals were awarded for art in the early Modern Olympics? Or that there is an organisation that supports Olympians who are also artists? And what’s the Cultural Olympiad?
We tend to associate the Olympics with sport and athleticism. But there is a strong undercurrent of...
My childhood was spent in country towns with family and friends living on farms: dairy, potato, wheat, sheep… As a teenager I accompanied my father as he travelled outback Australia in a 4WD visiting the remote cattle stations. Country life, particularly farm life, involves a lot of...
In Australia, Autumn is from March to May. This cooler season between Summer and Winter is referred to as Fall in America and, being in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs from September to November.
Wherever you are, this is a colourful time when the leaves on the deciduous trees turn from green to...
Water! We need it. We use it. We play with it.
We want to live by the sea and holiday by the river. We build bridges to go over it and boats to go on it. We create dams and weirs to collect it. We need it for drinking and cooking, washing and cleaning. Architects, engineers, designers and...
We have a new baby in our family! So I started thinking about how our growing family like to take pictures of the children and their antics. When our extended family is together, there are lots of photos and I was reflecting on what it is about babies and infants that we find so appealing....
There was a mid 19th century American art movement called “Luminism” (what a great word!) that dealt principally with light in landscape painting. The movement was characterised by the effects of light in the landscape, of light that washed the painted plane with an...
The tooth fairy has been busy recently in the homes of many 6 year olds - one, I know well! Made me think about fairies and how we know what they look like - through artwork, of course, in many classical stories.
Fairies in the garden. The tooth fairy. Tinker bell. Fairy godmother. Fairies can be...
‘Art’ you ready…!?
Art can play such an important role in education but let's start at the beginning!
Five and in Foundation
In Australia, children start school at about the age of 5: maybe not quite, or already 5. This first year of school is nationally...
So this is Christmas and what do we know…
Who was Saint Nick and why Santa in snow?
So many stories, songs, images. Even if you’ve heard these stories before, I like to revisit them at this time of the year and perhaps pick up a new little insight.
From the secret gift-giver in...
Why do we bring a tree inside our house at Christmas time and hang things on it…? Do you use a real fir or spruce tree or a fake one?! Some Christmas trees used in stores, and in homes, are huge! Then there are all the choices for decorations - merchandising gone mad. I start to think...
Floral, fauna, bird, mammal, fish, fossil… The states and territories of Australia have each selected emblems in these various categories. Why did they do this? Why were the symbols they selected, chosen? And what’s the difference between the terms fauna, animal, and mammal?
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Capturing ‘on canvas’ the changes around us as our world warms and cools can help us understand and appreciate the science behind the seasons. Looking around, what elements can we add to an artwork that represent what’s happening in nature because of the changes in weather...
More and more, we, as learners and teachers are honing our sensitivities towards cultural practices that differ from our own. The heavy, and most often, brutal burden of historical colonialist expansion into lands that were deemed uninhabited, or unoccupied – and in Australia’s case...
Taking time to remember our dad, spend time with our pop or create something a bit special for the father-figure in our lives can help show we love and appreciate them. Maybe you’re a mum looking for ideas for your kids to do something to celebrate this day, a teacher planning creative...
