Fine Arts

The visual arts curriculum at Vermont Commons School is based on direct studio experience. This experience is not founded on a fixed axis of ideas. The axis of the studio is moving and malleable, allowing projects to transform through creative action. Ultimately, the process used in the studio questions certainty and demands the artist to seek beyond the conventions of what is expected. In the Vermont Commons School visual arts program, students develop a visual grammar that inspires creative confidence, forming a template for a meaningful relationship with the arts.

Instruction in the studio involves exploring the use of a variety of media and materials. Original concepts that involve attentive, critical thinking are the basis for every project we work on. Duct tape collage, sequential observational drawings of figures with umbrellas using charcoal and watercolor, photo-emulsion on canvas, and large format oil paintings of self-portraits using a light projector are just a few of media used by students. During the formation of these projects, students develop their composition through hands on instruction, student critiques and the study of art history.

Sketchbooks are another integral part of our course work. They serve as visual journals in which we reflect on our projects, practice our observational drawing studies, and create new studies in the field for projects fashioned in the studio. Students are given assignments on a weekly basis that support and complement the artist’s practice in the studio and creative confidence.

Students’ work is proudly exhibited in the hallways of our school, and this exposure of work encourages other artists in the studio to think beyond conventional models.