“A painting is never finished – it simply stops in interesting places” - Paul Gardner

Our chosen quote above, from Paul Gardner, describes how the Art department is summing up an exhausting but exhilarating start to the year. Paul Gardner is an artist teacher who travels the world; he researches nature, translating his experiences and what he sees into his paintings. BIS Hanoi students have been working on a similar theme ‘It’s our world’. You may have read in last week’s newsletter about BIS Hanoi’s completed Big Draw events and celebration of student’s achievements. Referring to our selected quote - we are not yet finished – we have simply stopped in an interesting place.

The next step is to frame artwork and upload the completed projects onto the Big Draw website; there are numerous competitions to enter. Participation in the Big Draw was never solely about winning prizes, the students are already winners with the results of their hard work.

The art department alone could not have organised this huge achievement. Miss Cargill said “It seems like a long time ago I watched the Big Draw video , was inspired by Andrew Marrs' talk, then contacted Sue Grayson-Ford, enquiring if there were any Big Draw events taking place in Hanoi , with the intention of joining one of them. “ The response - there were no events in Vietnam, and it would be wonderful if BIS could plan the first event here. This was not a hurdle but an added challenge.

Miss Cargill also said “there are too many people to thank, it would produce a long list, but the BIS Hanoi Big Draw event would not have taken place without the initial support of Mr Rowlands, BIS Hanoi school funding, weekly meetings with Mr. Short, voluntary artists Pham Luc and Susan Coles, BIS parents, staff and of course all of the hard work from students”.

This week, Mr Tung will be organising year 7 work, completed by students and parents. The work will be framed and auctioned at the school’s annual Tet fair. He will also organise year 9 work to be framed, two works will be returned to Thinh Dai pagoda, two will remain in school and two will be auctioned. In addition, at the Tet fair we will have two lacquer works to auction, these have been designed but not signed by Pham Luc, the decision not to sign them was due to most of the work being completed by students with very little assistance required. The style is unmistakably Pham Luc’s and if you are a Pham Luc collector, simply like lacquer work or want to own something produced by BIS students this will your opportunity to make a bid on a unique piece of artwork. The larger lacquer works have been framed and installed in the first floor near the art room; please feel welcome to browse the works when you next visit the school.

Our next aim to support students is to create a digital art gallery, where work can easily be accessed online and viewed by parents and other schools. There are too many photographs to publish in a newsletter and too many videos to upload onto the schools Facebook website, a dedicated art page may be the solution. Below are some of the images not yet published, these include work produced during Susan Coles’ visit when she facilitated the teachers Inset on ‘mark making’. All primary teachers attended this event and it was open to all secondary teachers. Susan also visited Thinh Dai pagoda, supporting students in their production of work using the pagoda environment. She said she had enjoyed her visit to BIS Hanoi and had a wonderful and welcome experience during her first visit to Vietnam.

A final reminder, art work is never finished, we have merely scribbled on the first page of our BIS Hanoi sketchbook, it remains open and we are looking forward to including future Big Draw events.