What happens when art meets environment, and place becomes both canvas and subject?

​

​

I designed this project to bring students into direct dialogue with the environment . This field-based learning experience invited Grade 11 Visual Arts students to explore the environmental stories embedded in their local landscape. Set in Sai Kung—a coastal region where ecological beauty meets the pressures of development—students worked en plein air alongside Artist-in-Residence Gordon Dickson to document, interpret, and respond to the shifting relationship between humans and nature.

​

Why Sai Kung?
I chose Sai Kung because it holds contrast — a kind of ecological tension between untouched beauty and creeping urban expansion. That tension became the invisible subject of their work.

​

 

Core Learning Goals:

• Apply en plein air techniques in context

• Investigate local environmental issues through visual art

• Strengthen personal voice and concept development in IB Visual Arts

• Reflect on the intersection between place, identity, and ecological awareness

​

The project was designed to deepen students’ connection with their immediate environment before stepping into cross-cultural comparisons. Rather than viewing “the environment” as an abstract global issue, students began with what they could see, smell, and sketch—coastlines, mangroves, fishing boats, construction sites.

​

 

The Arc of the Experience:
In the weeks leading up to the excursion, classroom sessions focused on watercolour technique, outdoor sketching practices, and visual storytelling. These studio-based explorations laid the groundwork for field application.

In Sai Kung, students produced three observational sketches and documented the site through photography. The work served both as a primary source and as a reflective tool for ongoing IB Visual Arts portfolio development.

​​

 

Underlying Focus:

• Observation as a form of environmental inquiry

• Place-based artmaking grounded in current ecological realities

• Working in conversation with a practicing artist

• Using visual art to explore systems, tensions, and stories in the landscape

​

 

Why This Matters:
When students begin with the landscapes they live in, their creative choices carry weight. Sai Kung offered more than a view—it offered questions. Through this project, students learned to respond with nuance, care, and artistic precision.