As part of Arts Week, the Library hosted a guest illustrator Paul O’Sullivan who presented to a group of Primary and Secondary students and also shared his talent as part of the Art exhibition during the evening of Shine.

The skill of an artist/illustrator is greatly admired and even more so when you have the opportunity to meet one and also watch him at work. In Paul’s sessions, he shared his passion for illustration and showcased the originals of some of the work he has done in illustrating picture books alongside the writing of Gary Crew. Paul’s talent and skill as an illustrator have been shaped by many hours of sketching and perfecting his craft. Although Paul declares he is not really talented –  just practiced and persistent, the spectacular art on show and within the books he has illustrated tells us a different story.

Paul trained as an informational illustrator and describes his ‘happy place’ as one where he is ‘in the zone’ drawing for hours! Our students had the privilege of holding Paul’s original framed artwork where they could enjoy close up the amazing detail of his drawings and look deeper for the stories within a picture. Paul shared the power in a picture book that combines three narratives  – the printed text, the images/illustrations and the story that emerges in the third narrative as the elements join together to enhance the depth of the story. Students were further inspired to develop their own illustration skills when Paul demonstrated an illustrative technique when drawing clouds with a pencil and a cotton bud. The cotton bud became the tool that blended and distributed the shades of colour to become a cloud with character and definition. Our students both Primary and Secondary were excited by their results which were warmly encouraged by Paul during the sketching session. The lunchtime sessions ended all too quickly and the students left with a new skill for their drawing toolkit. 

Paul was impressed with the interest level of the students and was in turn inspired by the quality of the beautiful artwork on display for the evening of Shine. He commented that the thing he enjoyed the most was the degree of talent evident in the young minds and hearts of the students and the opportunity to hopefully impart some of his passion for visual art. For there to be so much talent in young people in one place was truly inspirational.

If you were fortunate to see Paul immersed in his art and sketching during the Shine evening, you will certainly understand the measure of his talent. Our students will continue to benefit from Paul’s skills and passion when he returns to share with Secondary Visual Arts and excited Primary students in the near future. The opportunity to have an artist in residence during Arts Week will no doubt inspire and bring out more talent and passion in our students that we will continue to see in years to come – The Arts certainly Shine @ GCC!

Book Week Fun

Book Week 2019 has been full of fantastic events including Book Fair, Secondary Character Day, Relax ‘n’ Read, the excitement of Escape Rooms, the unsurpassed Primary Book Parade and a Prep-Year 2 Author Visit with Peter Carnavas! What a week of celebration of the joy and power of Reading – definitely not a secret around here! Look out for next week’s Eagle for full details of all the happenings and of course the accompanying photos – a showcase of colour, celebration and creativity.

See you in the library.

Vanessa McKellar and Beryl Morris, Teacher Librarians