Portrait Club students ‘Our Online Year’ in colourful collage
By Maurice Garvey
THE Portrait Club at Ballyfermot College of Further Education strikes again – this time around a delightful collage depicting students self-portraits attending an online class.
The club is open to present and past students/teachers, who want to paint, draw or even sculpt a sitter at the monthly club.
Annette Smyth, who runs the portrait club, said the artwork features students from this years art courses and other courses, from portfolio graphics to degree animation.
“It is generally what an ‘online’ class looked like but not as big as this,” said Annette.
“We were trying to make the best of drawing and art online and came up with a way to remember the year that was Covid. The poster has a range of skills and diversity representing how coming together as a group can be colourful and inspirational.
“We have found the public love seeing the images and get a sense of what an online class looks like. I have titled it ‘Our online Year’. They all found it challenging and enjoyed the few times after Christmas they got to come into the college.
“They did amazing work over Zoom or Teams, we even met the pigeon fanciers in Ballyfermot. They did some drawing around that and are going to be part of the sculpture Dublin and Dublin City Council art project that is happening at the moment, the exhibition should be in October.”
BCFE had two former students and Oscar nominees, Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart with WolfWalkers this year, and recently ranked 18th in the world as an animation college.
Last year the Portrait Club welcomed a number of recognizable faces for sittings including RTE Broadcaster Joe Duffy, Francie Conway, Pete Holidai from Irish rock band Radiators from Space, and Cllr Vincent Jackson (Ind).
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