Sarah Reynolds
Units of Learning
The following Units of Learning are designed in line with the Junior and Senior Cycle Art specifications. Each unit is built around the three strands: Art, Craft and Design; Visual Culture and Appreciation; and Art Elements and Design Principles. All units are thoughtfully planned with learning outcomes, Features of Quality and Assessment for Learning at the core of each one. Across the units, students are encouraged to develop their own creative voice and personal responses while building technical skills across a range of processes, including drawing, printmaking, and digital media.
Symbolic Worlds: Dreamscapes of the Everyday
A4 Still life in Pencil
Students created expressive still-life compositions exploring personal identity through botanical symbolism. Beginning with reflective exercises including identity templates and mind maps, students developed imaginative arrangements combining plants, seasonal elements and personal items. Sketchbook studies, observational drawing and digital photography informed final compositions in which plants served as the dominant symbolic element, representing individual traits and characteristics. Drawing inspiration from Georgia O'Keeffe, David Hockney and my own botanical paintings, students were encouraged to consider how composition, texture and atmosphere can communicate personal narrative.
Junior Cycle
Veiled Identity: Symbolism through Flora
Exploring Symbolism and Portraiture through Painting and Photo Collage
Junior Cycle
Students created mixed media self-portraits combining painting and photo collage, in which botanical elements, personally selected for their symbolic meaning, partially or fully obscure the face. Each plant or flower acts as a metaphorical veil, representing hidden facets of identity, an alter ego, or inner experiences not immediately visible. Together, the works use the natural world as a language for self-expression, weaving personal narrative, introspection, and symbolism into a single artwork.
Fragments of Me: Identity through Shape and Pattern
Lino Print
Junior Cycle
Students created lino prints exploring personal identity through the symbolic language of everyday objects. Drawing from items tied to their interests or everyday life, each student selected an object whose shape and pattern held personal significance. Through observational drawing and photo collage experimentation, they developed bold, thoughtfully composed designs on A5 lino blocks - using mark-making to capture tone, texture, and depth. Together, the works piece together individual identity through the visual weight of objects that carry personal meaning.
Botanical Motifs: Exploring Shape, Pattern and Symbolism
Lino Print
Junior Cycle
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Building on their earlier exploration of plant symbolism, students transformed their chosen botanical form into a bold, graphic lino motif. Drawing on the work of artists including Michael Craig-Martin, Rachel Newling, Jan Brewerton, and designer Orla Kiely, they studied how strong outlines, silhouette, and rhythmic repetition can make imagery expressive and decorative at once. Students refined their central plant into a clear motif reflecting their chosen symbolism, then developed companion motifs and repeat patterns; experimenting with ordered and scattered arrangements to understand how pattern can convey mood and personality. Final lino designs pair a symbolic central motif with a considered patterned background, supported by sketchbook research, pattern studies, and written reflection.
Architectural Vessels: Sculpting the Extraordinary from the Ordinary
Ceramics
Junior Cycle
Students created surrealist ceramic sculptures inspired by architectural features observed directly within their school environment. Beginning with the work of Alex de Rijke and two self-selected surrealist sculptors, they studied how structure, distortion, and juxtaposition can transform the functional into the fantastical. Working from their own photographs of architectural details; windows, staircases, pipes, radiators, students developed compositions that merge real built forms with dreamlike reimagining. Using slab construction, texture, and patterning, they hand-built and painted finished ceramic pieces that sit between vessel and sculpture. The unit concluded with a written reflection and a short film documenting their process, influences, and making journey.
Stencil Suspects: Wanted for Being Me
Exploring Identity Through Self-Portrait Stencil Prints
Senior Cycle
Students created stencil self-portraits in the tradition of street art, exploring identity through bold visual language, symbolism, and text. Drawing on the work of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, JR, and Blek le Rat, they examined how image, context, and short phrases combine to make personal and social statements. Students first developed technical stencil skills by reproducing an existing street artwork, before designing their own "Wanted for…" self-portrait poster; using props, gesture, and a self-chosen tagline to capture what makes them distinctly themselves. A photography workshop gave each student a staged portrait to develop into a final four-layer stencil design. Outcomes include a stencil print on paper and a wanted-poster self-portrait on canvas, supported by sketchbook research, design development, and written reflection.