Leaving Certificate Study Areas


Practical Studies There are a broad number of disciplines available for you to study within your Art course. These may not all be available within your specific school setting, but you can study any disciplines available in a range of traditional, contemporary, new and digital media, or a combination of these. You should also use media to interact, create, connect and communicate with others as part of your chosen discipline.


Visual studies of artists and artworks past and present should form an integrated part of and an inspiration for your own practical work during Senior Cycle. This could include:


l visiting publicly funded arts venues like art galleries, museums or heritage sites, nationally or within your own county


l engaging with the built environment in your own area or beyond


l working with an artist or designer in a school- based programme or by visiting them at work in their studio.


These are the primary and therefore the best and most direct ways to engage with art, but there is, of course, a huge range of visual culture from numerous sources past and present to be found worldwide. Today’s globalised society allows easy access to vast amounts of visual imagery in books and magazines, on television and in cinema and video. However, the internet provides us with imagery and information in a way that would have been unthinkable in previous generations with the simple touch of a screen on our smartphones.


Assessment of Practical Work


Initial research work for your final pieces of artwork should be kept in your Art sketchpad. For the final assessment, you will be required to produce one realised work, developed from a stimulus, over an extended time period in Sixth Year.


The use of primary sources, including observational drawings of objects from life and from the imagination, will form the basis of this work.


Your final submission will include your artist’s statement. This will fully explain what you have created, how it was created and why it was created.


During the extended time period, you will also be required to develop work towards a second piece of artwork. This will be realised during a five-hour invigilated examination. This will also include your artist’s statement, which explains what you have created, how it was created and why it was created.


Visual Studies The term ‘Visual Studies’ refers to culture expressed visually in the past and by contemporary societies. Visual Studies will consider media and disciplines, and the ways in which artworks are shaped by society.


As you study the art of the past, a vast world of culture and developments will open up as you access the work of other artists. This will help you to consider how other cultures represented thoughts and ideas though visual means.


Visual Studies and Practical


Studies Visual Studies should be a fully integrated part of your practical studies, because learning about art and artworks can inspire your own work.


Understanding and being able to analyse the work of other artists should help in the development of imaginative and innovative ideas in your own creative journey.


Note: viii


Examples of student work showing inspiration and


interlinking of visual studies with practical studies are included here (see Figures 18–21), but further examples can be seen on www.gillexplore.ie.


NEW APPRECIATING ART

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