Making Jesus Real through Art

Mount St John Primary School, Dorrigo, students participated in an Art Enrichment Workshop facilitated by David Ogg, the Art Matters Visual Art Enrichment Workshops aimed to develop the character and creativity of students and staff.

Students of Mount St John Primary School, Dorrigo, were treated to an exciting experience of the Art Enrichment Workshop hosted by David Ogg, building an enthusiasm among students and staff for creativity, art and their existing skills.

The Art Matters Visual Arts Enrichment Workshops focused on building character, creativity and developing an appreciation of existing art capabilities. The Workshop built competent skills in staff and students alike and has helped with enriching the Visual Arts experience as well as modelling the integration of Scripture through the Visual Arts.

'It was exciting to see the level of engagement and within the students as David took them through this experience. David was able to build rapport with each of the students and bring out their inherent skills to collaboratively create an incredible piece of artwork. When working with the staff, David shared his personal experiences, connected to scripture and embedded both in his hand-crafted pottery. It was a unique and humbling session,' said Assistant Principal, Aleasa Kermode.

Scripture via stories were embedded in the workshop to help in Making Jesus Real. Students engaged remarkably with the content of the day and produced some exceptional pieces of work as you can see in the gallery below.

'David was able to develop, quite quickly, confidence within the students to realise everyone has different abilities when creating art and that all people are capable artists. The students thoroughly enjoyed the unique art experience and working with different mediums,' said class teacher, Carmel Beaumont.

'It was a very fun day, I have never worked with ink like that before. It did smell like fish. David was a great teacher and he made it really interesting. I loved seeing the student work he showed us. It had one thing from each moment of her day and it looked amazing. When he showed us how she did it, I thought I could do something like that. It was really inspiring,' said Year 6 student, Holly.

Students and staff came away from the workshop with a greater understanding of art, the development of existing skills, appreciation of creativity and confidence in their own abilities. Mount St John Primary School staff and students thanked Mr Ogg for his incredible work.