Meaning on canvas
Palettes and Portraits
In the last week of March 2014, KICK organised and funded a week of after-school art classes at Dormers Wells School in West London. KICK hired an Australian Artist, Jean Pretorius, who led a series of specialist workshops for students aged 11-16. He was aided by a group of A-Level Art students from Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith who helped during the sessions.
The art classes allowed the students to learn more about portraiture and art in general. Many of the pupils had a desire to develop their own skills as prospective artists and, without a doubt, all these ambitions were met during the week. Jean Pretorius' engaging tutorials introduced a variety of different approaches to drawing a portrait, giving inspiration from the exquisitely delicate drawings of many famous artists.
The enthusiasm of the group saw the students excel as the week went on, and resulted in the production of exquisite portraits of themselves, friends, family or simply of an iconic figure.
“It was an experience that all of us will remember for a long while and one in which we have learnt countless new skills and techniques. It allowed us to see art in a different way; by seeing a successful artist in Jean Pretorius we saw that art could be a career for many of us. I hope KICK do many more of these art sessions in the future in order to broaden our horizons. ”
— Student, Dormers Wells School
In 2015 and 2017, KICK funded Jean’s return to Dormers Wells to lead the workshops titled ‘Matching Colours using Paint’, which were explorations of colour theory. Here is some of the students’ work produced across the two workshops.
