MacLaren’s one-track curriculum is very intentional and builds year-over-year on the lessons and topics students have learned in previous years. Last spring, we sat down with our studio art teachers and asked them about the studio art curriculum and how the structured program, following this model, contributes to the students’ ability to create art themselves and to appreciate beauty.
How is the Upper School studio art program structured and how do lessons build on each other?
Students begin their Upper School art education in seventh grade using pencil as their primary medium. Projects for this foundational year are calligraphy, master portraits, and self-portraits. These projects build muscle control and steadiness of hand as well as a growing understanding of tone, shading, lines, and proportion. Students finish the semester with a master copy of a famous portrait. This requires them to slow down and pay close attention to their subject, noticing how a master used visual forms and employed various techniques. The students then apply these observations and techniques to their own portraits.
In eighth grade, new mediums are introduced, including colored pencil and watercolor. Teachers still emphasize the fundamentals, but now the subject matter is more challenging and the tone and shading more nuanced with the introduction of color and color theory. Eighth-grade projects, including The Rose, colored-pencil still life, and watercolor, teach students about the strengths and limitations of each medium.
Students return to the art studio curriculum in eleventh grade with the introduction of yet another medium: charcoal. They begin with a landscape drawing, again using a reference image to observe closely and utilize the strength of the medium to create stunning black and white vistas. Along with photographic references, students also learn how to draw subjects from life, including still life objects and their own reflections in a mirror, culminating in their final charcoal self-portrait.
In their senior year, students are introduced to acrylic paint. Their foundations in the fundamentals of drawing and color theory allow them to adapt what they’ve learned to this new medium. Students imitate great artists from J.M.W. Turner to Renoir to Degas in their acrylic master copies to stunning effect. The pinnacle of this studio art journey is the final senior project: a self-portrait in acrylic paint on a 24x24-inch canvas. Seniors are encouraged to paint their portraits in a setting that expresses their personality, and they draw on all the foundational skills they have acquired over the years to create a truly unique piece. The growth they can see for themselves from their seventh-grade self-portrait to their senior self-portrait is remarkable. A highlight of the year for all MacLaren students and staff is when the senior portraits are displayed in the hallways.
Why is this process important?
This progression of projects and mediums is very important because it gives the students a toolkit for their creativity. They learn the rules or purpose behind each tool and, with repetition, they are able to apply these tools with confidence and precision. Like an NBA player who still shoots hundreds of free throws in practice, art students need a toolkit of fundamental skills that then opens up more opportunities to use the tools they have mastered. Students also build connections to prior knowledge, which helps them adapt what they’ve learned to new projects and challenges.
How does this structured program guide students on their art appreciation journey?
Students in MacLaren’s art program regularly work from source material or copy masterworks. The process of trying to accurately copy a masterwork, using the same techniques the original artist used, develops a sort of relationship with that artist. The students have experienced the challenges the artist overcame and better understand and appreciate his or her creative decisions.
The art program also intentionally draws connections between the material the students study in their core classes and the art they are creating. As students learn the historical facts, philosophies, and culture surrounding a particular artist or a particular piece, they are better able to interpret or appreciate the significance of the work and how it shapes our understanding of that era. They are able to have better conversations about the depiction and what that says about us as humans.
Is there an ultimate goal for the Studio Art program?
The MacLaren Studio Art program asks students to have patience and to trust the process of education. Students cultivate the ability to attend and see beauty around them. Through art, students are invited to contribute to an ongoing conversation about society, culture, and being human. The curriculum gives students a solid foundation from which to create beauty on their own as life-long learners. Ultimately, the only goal is to appreciate and create beauty for its own sake.