Depressurising in March (and the end is nigh)

January 30, 2020

Greetings students! It’s March! Under pressure? If you are a second year DP Visual Arts student in a northern hemisphere school, you may be feeling pressure to complete work in the different course components, because the time for end-of-course uploads is...

Documenting temporary artworks

December 6, 2019

Fire, Water and Decay Emma – one of my 2nd year visual arts students –  is interested in the process of decomposition and destruction by fire. She’s interested in the way things change as they end their existence, the visual qualities and the nature of...

A Story of Cheating

November 6, 2019

In a recent visual arts workshop, we had a lot of discussions about academic honesty and how to detect plagiarism, and one of the teachers described this encounter: One of his students returned to school after the summer break with an absolutely outstanding artwork –...

Working from Observation (“direct observation”)

October 18, 2019

In September, for many schools it’s the start of another school year, and if you are a DP visual arts student, you will be either returning for your 2nd year or starting your first. Where to Start? Of course, your teacher will probably suggest some initial directions...

Cindy Sherman

August 12, 2019

Wow! I have just seen the Cindy Sherman Retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Click the link for a quick video of the works from the exhibition. “This major new retrospective explores the development of Sherman’s work from the mid-1970s to the...

Why so generous? – IA predictions

July 3, 2019

(i.e. why are the marks awarded by teachers for the visual arts IA component – the Exhibition – sometimes wildly unrealistic?) A group of IA moderators were chatting about their experiences in the last examination session. One moderator posed the question: why are...