23rd May, 2022

 

Hello all,

The theme for Wednesday's class was 'Complementing an Art Work' and was chosen by Jenny. She picked one of the abstract paintings by Piet Mondrian for which he is best known. She placed the print between two plastic containers, inspired by Mondrian's paintings, which she bought at the NGV. Jenny used umbrella grass stems to reflect the lines in the painting and trimmed the flowerheads of the umbrella grass to tie in with the contemporary look of the art piece.

For my example of this theme, I struggled to find an art piece of mine that I have not used this way in the past. Then, I remembered my sculpture sitting on the lawn in our back yard. This is a big sculpture, as tall as me, so it was challenging to say the least. Fortunately, I have a clump of gymea lilies with the large, strong leaves tipped with russet brown colours, reflecting the rusted steel of half of the sculpture. In order to get the height I needed, I joined two leaves lengthwise, extending the length. The gymea leaves were particularly well suited for this application because they can survive without water. I hammered steel rods into the ground and wired the leaves onto them.

Bedenia used a  small sculpture of the New Zealand symbol, 'Koru', a new fernleaf. She used 2 strelitzia reginae, dried leaves, which she sprayed gold, white nerines  and alstroemeria psittacina leaves in a lacquered vase.

Vicky's tower of rocks was her art piece. She used a dried, strelitzia nicolai leaf that was sprayed lightly with blue and placed around a tall glass container. She added three leaves of the Chinese Money Plant, Pilea peperomioides and a single anthurium.

Lucy referenced John Olsen's painting - 'Giraffes with Balloon'. She used dried branches, ginkgo biloba and a monstera deliciosa leaf, in a ceramic vase.

Shaneen's curriculum theme was 'Arrangement with Plants on a Wall'. She used a dry branch, Singapore orchids and nandina domestica nana.

Dianne's lesson was 'Special Materials and Arrangements for Festive Occasions'. She chose to celebrate the winter solstice. She used stephanandra, nandina berries, sedum and leucodendron.

Lei's lesson was 'A Variety of Materials'. She used a metal container she bought at headquarters, which has a very narrow base. She built up the volume of her materials up high, giving the impression of floating.

Wendy's Lesson was 'Composition of Surfaces Made by the Massing of Lines'. She used umbrella grass for the 'surface' and roses to complete the arrangement in a  ceramic suiban.

Mary had the same lesson as Wendy. She used agapanthus stems to create surfaces and disbud chrysanthemum's in a ceramic suiban.

Mary's previous lesson was 'Composition of Surfaces by Using Leaves'. She used New Zealand flax, gymea leaf, monstera deliciosa leaf and white lisianthus peeking through the splits of the monstera leaf, in a ceramic suiban.

Bye for now,

Emily