Four schools Art Departments run under the auspices of Johan Carinus Art Centre: Graeme College, Hoërskool PJ Olivier, Victoria Primary School and Victoria Girlsx High School.
In the Primary school General Arts and Culture projects and activities are offered to intermediate and junior grades. These include drawing, painting, mixed media, plaster of paris and papier maché sculptures, assemblages, collages, lino-cuts and a variety of other art projects. Additional activities take place in the field of drama, dance and music, namely short dramatic presentations, mime, expressive movement, song and experimentation with musical instruments.
At Secondary level; Grades 10, 11, 12 not only choose art as a subject but also have a choice between a Visual Arts and Design course. The Visual Arts course comprises three disciplines out of which the prospective student can choose between Painting, Sculpture and Graphic printmaking. The Design course offers Textile and Ceramic Design.
All courses have two components: practical studio work and theory, both of which complement each other. Students of the Visual arts course take a theoretical Visual Culture course that draws equally from European and African roots. The Design course covers a wide range of design disciplines.
In all departments there is an emphasis on drawing as an essential component of the creative process.
Senior Art Education
DESIGN
We offer Design as a FET Senior Phase Subject (Grade 10 to 12) and our learners can choose between ceramic design or textile design processes and production techniques as is required by the Design Learning Outcomes 1 and 2. The theory component for both these options meets the requirements of the Design in Context outcome and gives the learners a thorough grounding in the elements and principles of design. Design literacy is taught as well as historical overviews; definitions; terms and processes for both ceramic and textile design; industrial design; local and pan- African design (Case studies of successful contemporary designers are explored and a history of Western design from 1850 to the present is thoroughly investigated)Ceramic Design | Textile Design
Henri Glassie summarized the art of ceramics well when he wrote:
“Pottery makes plain the transformation of nature. Clay from the earth blends with water from the sky. The amorphous takes form in the hands. The wet becomes dry in the air. The soft becomes hard and the dull becomes bright in the fire. Cooked, the useless becomes useful.”
At Carinus we strive to equip our grade 10 - 12 learners in sound designing and ceramic skills that, if needed, they would be able to create self employment opportunities and become self sufficient. Skills and training include drawing, designing of products, ceramic hand-building techniques (coiling, slabbing & draping), decorating and glazing techniques.
Training on the potters wheel is offered as a non-examinable, after hours component.
S Burke
In the textile design department the learners acquire a range of designing and production skills. In Grade 10 they learn how to create basic repeats and how to screenprint these onto fabric using from one to three colours. They learn how to research a design brief and are encouraged to explore widely using various drawing and designing techniques.
They are introduced to a few other textile techniques, e.g. Stencilling, fabric painting and tie-dying. Students also to keep a source book of their research, write rationales and study current design trends. They are introduced to entrepreneurial concepts and have to present their years work in a carefully planned exhibition whereby they were also required to design and produce a poster promoting their work.
In Grade 11 and 12 design briefs, processes and screen printing production techniques become progressively more complex and challenging. Screen printing techniques include Shellac resist and photographic exposure of stencils, as well as a combination of the two.
M Kloppers
Visual Art
The visual arts represents a broad field of creative practice that involves the hand, the eye, the intellect and the imagination in conceptualizing and crafting two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects and environments which reflect the aesthetic, conceptual and expressive concerns of individuals or groups.The subject Visual Arts offers learners a way to meaningfully engage with and respond to their world. It provides opportunities to stimulate and develop learner's intellect, engaging their creative imagination through visual and tactile experiences and the innovative use of the materials and technology in the realization of their ideas. This provides the basis for learners to develop an individual visual language, which in turn is informed and shaped by immersion in the visual culture past and present.
Learners acquire the capacity to make practical and aesthetic decisions in the development of a coherent body of work, and become actively involved in shaping physical, social and cultural environments.
Graphics | Painting | Sculpture
The Graphic department offers learners the opportunity to experiment with, and obtain knowledge of, various printmaking techniques.
In Grade 10 the emphasis is on teaching all the basic Graphic print processes, ranging from monoprints, collographs, Perspex intaglio, woodcuts, linocuts through to etching. We encourage the learner to develop the mastery of technique further in Grade 11, where they focus only on selected printmaking media. By Grade 12 a relative mastery of the basic print techniques should have been achieved and the learner is then encouraged to specialize in the print process he/she favours. A fairly advanced stage should be reached in this chosen technique.
Drawing is a very important component in graphics where academic as well as experimental drawings are encouraged.
M van der Merwe
The painting department facilitates individual expression rather than dictates a norm or style. Creative activity is regarded as a personal process activated from within the ideas that manifest themselves outwardly through the medium of drawing. The practice of drawing is therefore encouraged, it being the visible structure out of which those ideas can be explored further by means of the brush.
A multitude of aesthetic choices come into play during the act of painting. Taking up the search for balance between choices in order to realize the original idea is to the young prospective painter a unique opportunity for enhancing self confidence and self understanding.
E Snyman
The practice of sculpture is at best, a holelistic experiential process for self- expression, understanding and personal growth. The course is designed to cater for students' interests and needs, to further their development in spatial dynamics and covers the main principles of sculptural production; that is carving, modelling, construction and casting techniques.
The sculpture department is situated in Grant House at Carinus Art School and boasts a beautiful spacious studio in which learners undergo a three-year course aimed at unleashing their creativity. Adjacent to the drawing and modeling studio is an excellent casting studio, metal workshop and woodwork facility. Students are introduced to traditional materials such as clay, plaster of paris, cement, steel, wood, plastics, found objects and papier maché.
The course is comprehensive and learners engage with intellectually challenging projects designed to develop personal creative expression and practical skills. Drawing forms the basis of this creative discipline where emphasis on three-dimensional drawing skills is paramount.
The sculpture course can be seen as a creative journey whereby the student develops life-skills, knowledge and values essential to personal development. The process of creating a sculpture mirrors the process of creative growth. Through this process of self-discovery, the student achieves greater self-confidence and awareness.
G Germond
Junior Art Eduction
Three of Johan Carinus educators work off campus at our feeder schools.
Graeme College | Victoria Primary | PJ Olivier
P.J. Olivier has a wonderful art classroom in which a wide range of different creative projects are carried out. At P.J. Grade 4 to Grade 9 are taught Art as a subject component of the wider Arts and culture programme
With the very little ones (Grade 4-6) we play and have fun with art while at the same time teaching the learners some of the basic principles and elements of the art world. At this young stage in their lives their creativity still stems from that inner place that has as yet been untouched by the ‘grown up’ world and it is wonderful to experience that creativity shining through in their artworks.
From Grade 7-9, we delve deeper into the elements and principles of art. We look at things like line, colour, tone, shape, form and texture and the effects that it can have on an artwork as well as different techniques and styles that the learners can incorporate into their projects. There is a larger focus on correct drawing technique as well and this is all done in order to prepare the learner for Grade 10 when he/she can choose art as a subject to carry through to Grade 12.
L Joubert
