Bringing Art to Life at Kentlyn Public School

26 Apr 2024

Throughout Term 1, students at Kentlyn Public School participated in our ‘Art Alive’ workshop, a term-long in-school program where students explored paintings and sculptures by contemporary Australian artists.

The artworks explored in this program are ‘Dolly Visits Indulkana’ by Kaylene Whiskey; ceramic sculptures from the ‘Avatar Towers’ series by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendra; selected crochet creatures from Louise Weaver; ‘The Naturalist’ by Patricia Piccinini; ‘Graveyards In Between’ by Robert Fielding and selected miniatures from Joshua Smith. 

These personal, engaging and quirky artworks inspired students to write poetry, first person narratives and informative writing.

Students used close viewing strategies, drama and discussion to describe the colour, shape and movement in these artworks. 

As they reimagined the stories and characters behind these artworks students were given the opportunity to expand their vocabulary and bring art to life.

Below is just one example of student writing, written by Mawaddah in year 4.

Inspired by Joshua Smith’s Miniatures

In the evening, I saw the city was singing with laughter for money.

Some of the buildings were embarrassed for the building that was singing but he had no hope, he had to be brave. They were all worried for him.

The traffic lights were laughing so hard they almost choked. One of the photo booth buildings was confused. The traffic light was in love with money.

The stop sign was trying to stop the traffic light but it turned to evening …

The cars went crazy, they were jumping and stomping everywhere.

They went so wild they set the whole city on fire, literally everything you can imagine.

Inspired by Patricia Piccinini  “The Naturalist” (2017)

If you were a boy, you would be named Shrek. If you were a girl, you would be called Jade. You would be a type of animal called a cute human eye creature and be as big as a computer screen. 

Your personality would be a creative combination of a small tiger and a jellyfish. 

You would be a spiky looking fish, born in 2023, with goat ears.

You would make noises that sound like an exhausted eight year old girl. 

Your laugh would sound like a monster that turned into a human being. 

You would smell like a haunted doll from the forest covered in daisies. You would have gorgeous red hair like fire burning through coal.