First Year

2019 Pottery Gallery

2019 Sculpture with line

Trust me if you don’t pick art as a subject, you will be sorry. I’ve only been doing art for 1 year and I can already tell it is 100% better than any other art you would’ve done in primary school. In art you learn so much and get to do so many more things than just drawing and painting. You get to do sculpting, pottery and much more. Art makes projects fun and it helps you develop presentation skills.

1^st Year Student

2021 Remote Learning January

1st year self portraits, proportions of the human face. Students have been working away using digital and traditional drawing media.

Things I have learned…

If only the art room walls could talk, they would have so much to tell. Here are some of the things I have learned.

I have learned how to analyse, copy, shade or colour drawings. I have learned how to make, bind, smooth and hollow pottery. I have learned how to cut, shape, stick and crush wire. I have learned how to assemble, explain and journey through a visual art sketchpad, and most of all art has taught me patience.

Luke K. Doyle, 1st year

Ceramic face project

Alter Egos

Art was a good subject choice for me because nowadays everything needs some form of art and art has now become an important subject as you need great presentation skills. Also art class isn’t just art class. We also learn important life skills. An example of this is the visual art sketchpad, where we, by ourselves, had to make a presentation of the work we did and how we went from ‘A’ to ‘B’. It also was a good choice for me as I enjoy doing some pieces from time-to-time and classes helped me improve my standards.

Jack Jenkins, 1^st Year

If you are thinking of doing art for your junior cert I definitely advise that you do. It is a fun and enjoyable subject, it gives you a break from working hard in other subjects and you get time to express yourself. During the three year course you will learn and explore lots of skills and techniques while sculpting a masterpiece or painting a perfect picture. As long as you do the work you will have a great time.

Anonymous, 3^rd Year

Art was a valued choice for me because of the improvement of the curriculum from primary school. I'm in first year and I've already learned many new techniques like hatching. All these skills will prepare you for a possible future in art and are always fun to learn. In one year I've made a finished wire sculpture and a fired clay pot. The best part is being able to choose what you want to make, whether it be a clay jug or a clay mushroom, the choice is yours.

Daniel Nolan, 1st Year

Art was a good subject choice because it's fun but it's also a chilled, laid back class. Although its tough at times, I enjoyed the whole year.

1st Year student

An exploration of shape, texture and imagination

A beautiful exploration by first year artists in Presentation College Bray

Pottery and the wild in my area.

I picked art because art can really be anything. You can express yourself, your feelings, thoughts and memories. One day you could paint, the next you could do pottery. It is also good because the homework doesn’t feel like homework – its fun and good to clear your head. Coming into the year, I thought “I’m not good at art” but the first thing I did it was so much better than I thought I could do. Art is fun and a nice class to be in and I look forward to every class.

Gregory Healy, 1st Year

Exploring Themes

We often use word and picture mind maps to begin our projects. This allows for maximum creative input while all working within common parameters.

Work featured: Jack Golden, Ross Hayde and Daniel Nolan

Texture

Looking at surfaces in our world, we drew objects with interesting textures. To further explore we rubbed over them "Frottage" to see what marks they would make. We then used the marks of our frottage to make our own imagined images.

Images: Oisin Rothwell and Cathal O'Brien

pottery construction

Learning about fundamental construction techniques through hands-on experience before making a unique and original vessel.

Pottery and the design process

Work by Luke Doyle

A beautiful project in process exploring the theme "The Wild in My Area". Work shown includes brainstorming and mind-maps, primary source drawings in tone and colour, use of viewfinder to create line drawings, studies of symmetry in pots using vertical reference lines, research into the work of other potters, pot design work using sculptural light and text explaining developing ideas. Next stage - making the pots.

Development in our pottery

Artists working on their pottery projects. Here, they are exploring the theme ‘the wild in my area’ and creating a unique artwork in response to this theme. Students often use the art studio before school and during lunch to progress their work.

Students taking art in Pres. Bray are encouraged to express their inner worlds. In the studio, we are active and creative. We understand that boys learn by doing and by working towards a goal. These important considerations are always at the forefront of our planning.

In the kiln

Hollow sculpting

Rolling coils

sculpting with tools

Attaching decorative elements to vessels

Attaching curved slabs

Busy at work

Creating and using a stencil to attain symmetry

Using a rasp to create flat planes when the clay becomes less moist

FINISHING OUR POTTERY

CAKES MADE WITH FORAGED INGREDIENTS!

Andrew Doyle very kindly brought a generous finish to our pottery project by making delicious treats for the whole class with ingredients foraged in "the wild"...just as our pottery explored this theme for the term.