Art History: Art history students completed their survey of art with study of Renaissance, Baroque, and Modern artists. Students did a series of short presentations on artists from the Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, and Baroque Periods, focusing on the most important information about their styles. They also did PowerPoint presentations on a Modern Art topic and oral presentations on a specific modern artist. As a final activity, students completed a cathedral comparison project. For this assignment they created a poster showing the similarities and differences between a specific Romanesque and Gothic structure, highlighting unique features of each. All of these activities helped prepare the students for their exams, whether AP or SVGS, that took place in early May.
Survey of World Art I: Students in Survey of World Art I completed their study of art history with the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Students developed presentations on specific topics as introductions to the artwork of these eras and locations. Stylistic differences were discussed based on technical developments and societal beliefs. A final essay asked students to trace the development of sculpture, painting, or architecture from prehistoric times through the Middle Ages and throughout different ancient cultures of the world.
Studio Art I: Studio Art I students completed several projects focusing on different methods of drawing. For example, one project required that they create a still life in white and black charcoal on a colored piece of paper. The colored piece of paper served as the mid-tones of the drawing. For another project, they worked with white charcoal on a black piece of paper. This requires students to have to shade objects in reverse by adding white to get lighter values. Students also created a project with colored ink, learning both techniques with a brush and with a pen. Other projects were centered around an overall theme, such as contentment or tradition, and allowed students flexibility in materials and techniques to express their own interpretations of the theme. Final projects evaluated the students’ skill level in shading and their ability to successfully employ a variety of drawing techniques.
Studio Art II: Studio Art II students continued work on their year-long concentration projects, completing final pieces for their portfolios. The concentration project consists on 12 works based on self-selected themes that focus on the elements and principles of design. The end result must be a body of work showing challenging exploration and visual cohesion. Students also completed other projects solving design problems. These included creating abstraction and visual rhythm. In addition to these, there were projects requiring students to interpret a theme. All of this work is intended to give the students flexibility in media and technique choices, as well as challenge them to problem solve for the best solution to achieve the desired result. The culmination of the course was the final
presentation of a portfolio that is either submitted digitally to the instructor or to the AP Studio Art program.
The second semester of Art Craft and Skills saw a wide variety of media and methods being taught by local artists. Juniors took courses in wheel-thrown ceramics, taught by Phill Ungar, textile image design, taught by Barbara Phillips, polymer clay, taught by Brecken Geiman, and black and white photography, taught by Lynn Hilton Conyers. Seniors took courses in enameling, taught by Lynn Hilton Conyers, sculpture, taught by Dymphna de Wild, wheel-thrown ceramics, taught by Phill Ungar, and screen printing, taught by Piper Groves. Some special workshops were also offered. Brecken Geiman taught a two-day workshop on rendering the human figure. Students did gesture and figure drawings using charcoal that led to a wire sculpture of a figure as the culminating activity. Several seniors participated in a workshop taught by Phill Ungar and Piper Groves that combined techniques in screen printing and ceramics. Students produced photographic images on their screens by making them light sensitive and working with exposure. The images were then printed onto a clay body, a plate or slab, using underglazes. A two-day workshop was also taught by Linda Cauley to the juniors in both art and theatre. This workshop focused on the art and culture of southern Africa. Mrs. Cauley showed artifacts from her own collection and discussed techniques in story telling. The students created artwork and presented their own stories as the final activity.
Shenandoah Valley Governor's School 