The goal of the staff at St Paul’s is to support students to find success in art and creativity by helping those who are already confident and those who are less confident to surprise themselves. Senior students are supported with quality mentorship and resources to produce artwork that is fit for the NZQA Visual Arts curriculum. Many St Paul’s Art students take the opportunity to sit Scholarship Examinations with high levels of success. A number of students in recent years have been invited to have their work in the prestigious NZQA Top Art exhibition. There is a range of options to access the Visual Arts at St Paul’s across several media, including:
- General Art (Year 9-10)
- Design (Year 11-13)
- Painting (Year 11-13)
- Photography (Year 11-13)
- Printmaking (Year 11-13)
Year 9
All students at St Paul’s take Art for 12 weeks, working closely with printmaking skills and design principles. They learn about composition, colour management and engage in research skills to study traditional Maaori art forms, motifs and themes, as well as engage with exciting and relevant artist models.
Year 10
In Year 10 students choose to take Art as a half-year programme. Two major assignments make up this course, one exploring self-identity (painting/design) and the other exploring the art of storytelling (using clay, drawing & painting).
Year 11
Students can choose from two courses at Year 11 either Visual Art Visual Art (Painting/Printmaking) or Digital Visual Art (Photography/Design). The course allows students to explore and share their story visually.
Year 12 and 13
The Year 12 and 13 courses split into four separate disciplines. Students can choose from the following courses: Art Design, Art Photography and/or Art Painting/Printmaking.
View examples of Scholarship Examination portfolios by St Paul’s Collegiate art students here and an example of a Scholarship Examination report of work here and here.
Top Art
The Top Art is an annual tour featuring a selection of NCEA Level 3 portfolios that achieved Excellence.
Luther Yates chose to photographically explore his family farm; early work from Luther featured cattle, trees and historic photographs and memoirs. Luther chose to narrow his inquiry to the original farmhouse. The use of technically-sound, in-camera techniques, coupled with the use of a macro lens and critical framing, saw Luther producing this high-quality, formal abstract board. Luther gained an Excellence in Photography, and his board was included in Top Art 2022.
Kenzo Robcke’s Level 3 Printmaking folio featured in the 2023 Top Art. Kenzo developed his love and skill for high-detailed pen and pencil drawings to fit seamlessly into the medium of Printmaking. Kenzo combined a range of mono-printing techniques with highly detailed drawings; he layered these in Photoshop to construct his compositions and printed them on high-quality cotton-based paper via the inkjet printer. Kenzo also made good use of the Art Department’s digital screen printing machine.
