Meet our Grade 12 IB Visual Arts Students

Our Grade 12 IB visual arts students are preparing for their final exhibition and exam in April, so please mark your calendars for our Opening Night Reception on Thursday, April 11. The exhibition will then be displayed for two weeks in our Stanfield Dining Hall/McLellan Annex.

After March Break, our students will focus on planning their display, writing a rationale and exhibition texts, and uploading their artwork. It has taken months of preparation, and each student is required to produce a number of art works based on their own direction or theme. This year, we have 26 Grade 12 students who will be exhibiting their work. The Grade 11 IB art students will be assisting our Grade 12 students with their displays as well as showing their work.

Until the art show, we will be showcasing our artists in our weekly newsletter highlighting one of their favourite projects during this two-year course. I hope you enjoy reading the profiles of our young artists. This week, we are highlighting Maddy Fleming '24, and Yuta Takahashi ’24.

I chose to share my oil painting called Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (work in progress). In my previous studio work, I have been painting scenes from around my home, and my family’s home, especially my grandmother, who lives in Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia. My artworks make a connection to my family history.

I was inspired by a few photographs of Lunenburg, and especially the closer composition of the buildings along the shore. I wanted to put the buoy in the foreground as the focus of the painting, and to paint on a larger size canvas for the challenge.

I was inspired by the Group of Seven’s paintings, during an art trip to the Nova Scotia Art Gallery last fall. The Group of Seven was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933. They were one of Canada’s first internationally recognized art movements. As a group, they made it a point to showcase the rugged natural world of the Canadian landscape in a beautiful way. Their works were noted for their bright colours, tactile paint handling, and simple yet dynamic forms.

My painting is in progress, and you will be able to view the finished piece in the upcoming art exhibition.
Future plans: I plan to attend university in the fall. 

I chose to share my artwork called Boom, a mixed media and illustration, collage. I wanted to make artwork around my culture and my passion. I have been reading comic books throughout my childhood and there is one character that I related to, he was also named Yuta. I decided to use the comic illustration as a background and then build up the collage using a well-known Japanese printmaker, Hokusai Katsusika, The Wave, and an image of Mount Fuji.

I used the same characteristics from a comic illustration which is everything outlined in black, using primary colours and the focus on the main character, which is myself.

This theme was also carried into my IB comparative study, I chose to compare Japanese comic books and artists to American comic books and artists. The artists were Japanese illustrator Akira Toriyama who made comics Manga, and Dragonball, and American illustrator Stan Lee who made Marvel comics. This theme was also reflected in my studio work.