Students show off their art

SHEREEN ALI

STUDENTS are creating some talented work that is often never seen except by parents and friends. Recently, art students at Holy Name Convent, Port of Spain displayed a dynamic range of work in several arts media, including wire sculpture, textiles, and graphic design.

Their art teachers say they enjoy challenging and inspiring their students to develop good arts and craft skills as well as an inner vision or concept of what they want their art to achieve or convey. From hand-made jewellery to wooden cabinets, textile wall hangings, and a range of sculptures including fantastical dragons and some edgy concept installations, the show made for some interesting viewing.

Irénée Shaw, one of the art teachers and a figurative painter herself, said of the show: “This is the culmination of a year of serious work by our senior students at Holy Name Convent and we are very proud of them. They pushed themselves to the limits, and worked well above and beyond what was required of them by the CXC syllabus.”

Student Vivian Wall, an upper sixth student with a passion for Afrocentric themes, is taking art at CAPE Unit 2 level. On the show’s opening night on March 20, she shared with Newsday: “This is a significant part of Holy Name’s culture. It’s a great opportunity for girls in form five, lower sixth and upper sixth forms to show off all their hard work, and share it with the public, who are welcome to visit. What it took to get here was that throughout the year from form five, we have ten SBAs (school-based assignments) to do, ten flat pieces. Three major pieces will go up to be marked. In form five, at our school we have three different media to choose from: painting and mixed media, drawing, and graphics. Sixth formers have to produce five pieces.”

Here are some of the pieces produced by students.