What is Art to me? Art is taking something completely normal and moulding it into something entirely different and extraordinary. This year each student developed a variety of artworks portraying the Old Testament story of the Jewish heroine Judith slaying the Babylonian general Holofornes. During the first term we had to create oil paintings by only depicting abstracted forms to represent the parts of the tale. We learnt how to make nothing into something. Each student took a few ordinary objects, painted them on canvas and created a message that appropriated the Artemisia Gentileschi masterpiece from 1620. In Terms 2-3, we moved on from oil painting inanimate objects to using digital photography and our own limbs (hands and feet mainly) to portray the ancient story. This taught us some new Photoshop skills as well as different ways to communicate a message to an audience.  Year 10 Visual Arts has taught me how to take the boring and simple and turn it into something you can look at forever without losing interest, as you try and find the deeper meaning behind what the artist is trying to show you.

Ariella Werner

See these works in the gallery