Year in Review 2019: Learning Outside the Classroom
sra in 2019
As promised, here is the continuation of SRA’s Year in Review 2019. Last year, we took some time to step outside the classroom and experience Art. As Artist, it is important to absorb as much as we can from our surroundings. This practise only sharpens our understanding of what we want to say with our Art.
Field trips to the NGV
Last year, SRA visited the National Gallery of Victoria twice. We visited the Escher X nendo exhibit in January 2019, and the Terracotta Warriors & Qui Gou Qiang exhibit in September 2019. These were two very different styles of exhibitions as the former pertained to patterns, designs and replication of a single shape and the latter exemplified history, traditional sculpture and performance Art.
We had so much fun on these field trips to the Gallery. It was lovely walking the spaces with everyone, asking and answering questions about the history and importance of these different pieces of Art. Despite the fact that these Art pieces were not just portrait paintings or figure drawings, the students felt a sense of intrigue and inspiration experiencing how different people create Art. The joy was learning that Art isn’t just one thing. Art is the idea and or the emotion, the subject is merely the vessel.
Upon visiting the gallery as a group, many of my students later explained that in the past, they would have visited alone, enjoying the beauty but not knowing much about the work other than what they could pick up on the title cards. These trips to the gallery allowed everyone to feel a sense of relaxation, knowing they were learning about Art and visiting with new found friends.
We have already been discussing our next Art Gallery Adventures for 2020. There is much going on at the NGV in 2020. Who knows, we may even venture further a field for our next weekend Art Adventure. We’ll see.
2019 travel diary
In August 2019, I took 3 weeks off and returned to North America. For the past 3 years or so, I had returned at different times of the year and took the opportunity to document the changing landscape each time. It was a great way to communicate my inspiration with my Art community as well as clarify for myself where I find inspiration. This is a question I get asked time and time again. For me, inspiration comes from my environment.
I like to surround myself with uplifting experiences that fuel my artistic self. I read a lot. Book, journals, anything really that captures an experience and puts it into words. Experiencing other forms of creative expression helps me understand what I want to say with my Art. I love traveling to new places, watching films and listening to music.
In August 2019, I was in the peak of American Summer in the Midwest. We visited 4 States that trip (Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Kentucky) and even creeped up to the Bruce Peninsula, in Ontario Canada. The colours everywhere were so vibrant; greens and reds, the air thick with heat and the sun, bright and radiant.
I did my best to post a photo every 2 days documenting my travels as a travel Diary on Instagram. I loved sharing with my community where I was and all the experiences that were taking place. We visited 3 Distilleries in Louisville, Kentucky, visited the Polymath Park in Pennsylvania, saw 3 Alex Katz paintings in Detroit and Pittsburgh, stood in a room 2 floors high completely covered in white marble at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and last but certainly not least, ticked off another Bucket list adventure, walking the rooms of Falling Water in Pennsylvania.
Amazing architecture, beautiful Art, great whiskey and delicious local food, it was a trip I will never forget.
Spanking new Website
In December 2019, SRA relaunched our new website. It was a lot of hard work and many hours perfecting all the drawings, content and artwork, but it was all well worth the time and effort. Now newcomers can get a real sense of SRA. A great big thank you to one of my students for all their hard work creating this new website.
Online courses coming 2020
We are working to get SRA online courses off the ground in 2020. This will be a wonderful addition to the website as I will be able to have persons living further a field become part of our Art Community. If you are interested in taking an online class with SRA in the future, please join our mailing list below.
Thank you all for sticking around till the end. 2019 was a great year for SRA. Our Art Community is welcoming to anyone who wants to learn to create Art, in their way. I look forward to all the positivity and fun we get to enjoy in 2020 together.
Your Instructor,
Saabira Razac