Year 9 Visual Arts Students Explore ‘Beauty and the Beast Theme’

Year 9 Visual Arts students have put together an arrangement that embodies the concepts of memento mori and vanitas.

Year 9 student report on work in Visual Arts so far this year.

Year 9 Visual Arts students have had a busy start to the year as they look at observational drawing and still life. Year 9 student Jenolin P. from 9VART.1 and Visual Arts Teacher Mrs E. Langbein-Pass have written a report about their work so far:

In the first few weeks of elective Art, my Year 9 class has been exploring the theme ‘Beauty and the Beast’ through observational drawing and still life studies. We began by sketching flowers and natural forms, focusing on line, tone, and detail, and are now preparing to create a coloured pencil drawing as our main medium, which will continue into Term 2. Throughout the unit, we have studied artist examples such as Still Life on a Windowsill (c. 1685) by Rachel Ruysch, a work from the Dutch Baroque period, to understand how composition, light, and symbolism can communicate deeper meaning and how this resonates with our own perspectives.

Year 9 Visual Arts students have put together an arrangement that embodies the concepts of memento mori and vanitas.

Our elective class has been highly collaborative, sharing ideas and creative insights while responding in diverse and thoughtful ways to the same still life set-ups. Recently, we worked with an intricate and visually striking arrangement that embodied the concepts of memento mori and vanitas. Memento mori, meaning ‘remember that you must die’, is a symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death, while vanitas refers to the fleeting nature of life, beauty, and material possessions. These ideas are often represented in still life artworks through objects such as wilting flowers, insects, or decaying forms, encouraging viewers to reflect on the passage of time and the temporary nature of existence.

For me, these concepts emphasise the importance of savouring moments and appreciating objects that hold life, detail, and meaning. Capturing these ideas through still life compositions has helped me connect more deeply with our theme, Beauty and the Beast. Through this experience, I have been encouraged to find beauty not only in elegant flowers, animals, objects, and patterns, but also in flawed and unconventional forms such as beetles, unusual objects, and imperfect textures. This process has helped us understand how beauty and darkness can coexist, and how art can challenge traditional ideas of what is considered beautiful.

Thank you to Mr G. Johnson, Leader of Learning Science, for providing some of the curious objects - the scull, coral and jar specimen.

Year 9 Visual Arts students have put together an arrangement that embodies the concepts of memento mori and vanitas.