Upper School Visual Art

Welcome to the Upper School section of the All-School Visual Art Show. Scroll down to view student work, or click the buttons below to jump directly to each course's section. Click images to enlarge.

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Ap Studio Art Ceramics Art & Social Justice Costume Design Photography Documentary Film Graphic Novel 2D Design 3d design Drawing Art & the Environment

AP Studio Art

This year-long course offers students the opportunity to explore materials, processes, and ideas to use in their own sustained investigations.

Art & Social Justice

Think globally; act locally. Art and Social Justice is a multifaceted course designed around employing conceptual and visual art practices in the local community. The course is intended to not only build a strong foundation in art making, but also to deepen participants’ understanding and appreciation of the arts and the interdisciplinary and influential role the arts can play in our society. Students will gain a real-world perspective on the trials and tribulations of creating art in the social sphere while addressing the real issues.

Costume Design: Repurposing Project

In this project, Costume Design students take found clothing items and turn them into a completely different garment.

Denim Skirt Reimagined

Katie Fitzpatrick

Two Shirts Into One

Olivia Roland

Sweater Into Skirt

Payton Handler

Sweater Into Skirt, Skirt Into Halter Top

Payton Handler and Francesca Luzi

Pants, Wrap Top and Bodysuit Into Shorts and Top Resort Wear

Kaitlyn Covert

Costume Design: Design Elements Clown Project

Students created a rendering of a clown highlighting one of the specific design elements: line, shape & form, color, pattern, texture, or light. Students used color trim, and fabric choices to enhance the viewer’s understanding of the design.

Photography

This course introduces students to techniques and processes, visual culture, history and the aesthetics of photography. Some questions we explore in this course:

Why do people take/make photographs?
Why is photography important?
What skills do you need to be a good photographer?
How does photography help us see the world?
Can photographic images be trusted?
What are the similarities and differences between photography and other types of visual art?
When would it not be OK to take a photograph?
How do you know when you've made a "good" photograph?

Block 8 Photography

Block 4 Photography

Block 2 Photography

Documentary Film

Ken Burns Project

Students created a short film using the Ken Burns editing techniques on an historical topic that could be a person, place, thing, or event. The project included historical found footage and photographs, a voiceover written and delivered by the student, music, and appropriate titles and credits.

Point-of-View Interview Project

Advanced Documentary Project in the Ken Burns Style with Rotoscoping

Independent Study in Documentary Film Production

2D Design

3D Design

Observational Drawing

Students in Observational Drawing are introduced to the fundamental techniques and practices of drawing in pure line from observation. Three-dimensional forms in space serve as the subjects to be translated onto the two-dimensional page. Line quality, figure-field relationships and composition are among the core concepts addressed daily via production, discussion and reflection. Students in the class each independently selected their “preferred works” to be included in this exhibition.

Art & the Environment

This course is focused on the intersection of visual art and environmental stewardship. We take field trips into nature in order to make close observations, with all our senses, for the purpose of reflection and art making. We practiced our observational drawing and plein-air painting skills using a variety of media. In addition, we learned how to make paper and how to make mono-prints using natural materials.

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Tile Project

This tile project allowed me to express myself using tile art. For this project we were supposed to pick out a few flowers or plants that represented values that were most meaningful to us, such as determination, love, etc. We then proceeded to draw a sketch of a flower we had chosen. When our sketch was done, we then traced it onto a piece of wood tile, which we painted in and made the plants more colorful. We did this two times, using a different plant for each one. This project was meaningful because of how it let me express my emotions. It allowed me to use art and nature to show the feelings that matter so much to me. —Jack Bowen

Paper Making

We did paper making during art class for about two weeks. We had the chance to meet with Nicole Donnelly and learn how to make paper hands on. She is a hand papermaker, painter, and installation artist. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa in 2009 and her BA from Bennington College, and she has received grants and fellowships to complete residencies at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Morgan Conservatory of Paper, Goldwell Open Air Museum, Vermont Studio Center, and Women’s Studio Workshop. It was a really interesting experience. At first it was hard to make sure the pulp was thin enough to make the paper flat. We worked in groups so seeing everyone excited to do it was my favorite part. We even were able to do a new project with drawing and painting and used the paper we made to do those activities. —Kariyah Hunt

Painting Project

For this project, we started with a visit from Mandy Katz, a local artist who specializes in these kinds of abstract works of art. We were told to start our paintings by just painting on the canvas however we felt like doing. These first steps were not about starting to come up with an idea of what the final product would look like. Instead, they were focused on just creating a base that we would be able to build off of as we continued our paintings. As we continued through the process, our paintings began to develop their own sort of theme or topic which came from a wide range of ideas. All of our paintings began to incorporate aspects of nature in a variety of ways from simply adding a few flowers or vines to completely centering the painting around some part of nature. These paintings allowed us to express ourselves in ways that we hadn’t been able to before when constricted to specific guidelines. The openness and flexibility of this process allowed us to demonstrate the variety of ways nature interacts with and impacts our lives. Nature is not restricted to our time spent outdoors. Nature is a part of every aspect of our lives and our paintings allowed us to demonstrate our different connections to the natural world. —Grace Agosto

Linocut Project

The linocut project was one of the first activities we did in Art and the Environment class. We started by looking outside in Chigwell Close for interesting natural forms that caught our eye: small berries, leaves, different angles of sticks and flowers. After getting reference photos of plants and other interesting organic scenes, we returned to the classroom to trace the images on tracing paper and figure out what we wanted to print. Linocut blocks are used to create a stamp by carving out areas and lines to make negative space.We stamped our designs onto different colored paper, canvas, and even postcards! We also layered oil pastels and gouache paints onto the print to add color and texture. The project allowed us to make one simple design into many different and unique pieces, which were exciting to compare and see side by side. We were also able to bring our observations of nature to life through this project, as we had the opportunity to depict the plants and animals we saw in several different ways. The linocut prints were a great starting point for the class, as we saw how illustrations and portrayals of nature can range from detailed and realistic to imaginative and abstract. —Zady Hasse

Islamic Tile Project

With roughly one month left until the end of the semester, Art and the Environment students examined Islamic art. There are three main characteristics of Islamic visual art: geometric patterns, floral/vegetal designs, and calligraphy. During this project, we further studied geometric patterns by experimenting with various shape and color combinations. Circles were generally the base of all tiles created, since circles represent both unity and diversity of creation. Other patterns such as stars, polygons, or squares would extend from the original circle. Shades of green, red, blue, or brown were also typically found in students’ designs, due to the prevalence of these particular colors in Islamic visual art. As a result, each student in the course generated their own, unique Islamic tile with the TILEMAKER program. — Bella Denton-Scarano

Ink Painting Project

One of the many projects we undertook this year in Art and the Environment was a style of painting known as 山水 Shan Shui; meaning ‘mountain-water’ in Chinese. This traditional Chinese way of painting, originating in the Tang dynasty, captures the spirit of the natural world using a brush and ink. Typically paintings have mountains, rivers, and waterfalls as the centerpieces, although we also worked on painting tiny people exploring the scenery. This was one of my favorite projects that we did throughout the class; I had lots of fun painting with the ink. —Savannah Abernethy

Goat Drawings

In the end of October of 2021, The Philly Goat Project visited Penn Charter’s Strawbridge campus. The PGP (Philly Goat Project) was created to teach people about goats and how beneficial they are to the environment. They also provide goat therapies for trauma patients. We did two different types of goat drawings that were assisted by an instruction manual with the steps to create the art piece. One of the drawings was a side view of a goat, and the other was a face portrait. Goats are good for the planet as they pretty much do not stop eating for the whole day, this is due to the fact that they have a large stomach that is made up of four components (Omasum, Reticulum, Abomasum, and the Rumen). —Laurence Toncich-Mandel

Cyanotype Project

Cyanotypes are one of the oldest methods of printing in the history of photography. Although they are traditionally done on sheets of paper that turn a bright cyan blue, we also used purple and green sheets. When the process was first invented, it exploded in popularity. Easier and more accessible than using a dark room to create photographs, to make a cyanotype you expose chemicals on the paper to UV light, with parts of the paper covered. This produces contrast between the lighter color the paper is at the start, and the darker color it becomes when introduced to the sun. In our class, we made cyanotypes three times; once in Chigwell close, once on the soccer field at Strawbridge, and once in Clifford Park. Because we had art in the first semester, leaves were falling and many other plants were dying so it was the perfect time to collect dead plant life from nature, and repurpose it into art. —Lauren Montgomery

Independent Study: Zady Hasse

What is something you learned about the artistic process?

I learned about underpainting! It is surprising to me that I had never heard of this technique, because I think that it is so helpful and is a great way to lay out your painting. I think that this is important to my artistic process because it is a way to plan out what you want to do, and organize or adjust the image before you start. I think that finding ways to do that in more projects would be very helpful and allow me to experiment more within a process.

What is something you learned about yourself?

I learned that I am very comfortable with changing my plan over and over again, and that freedom to make changes is important to my art. If I feel open to making adjustments and not pressed for time, I am able to plan and carefully think about my work.

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