Saint Patrick's B.N.S., Cork.

The Visual arts curriculum consists of six strands. Each strand represents a medium for developing the child's expressive abilities. These strands are:

Drawing
Paint and colour
Print
Clay
Construction
Fabric and fibre.

Through these six strands, children explore the following seven visual elements when making, looking at, and responding to art: line, shape, form, colour and tone, pattern
and rhythm, texture and spatial organisation. The Visual arts curriculum emphasises
three starting points for the child's art activities:

the child's own experience
the child's imagination
the child's observations.

In the Visual arts curriculum, the child is encouraged to look at and respond to a wide variety of artworks. It is through talking about these artworks that the child develops sensitivity to the visual elements, and begins to use them purposefully in his/her own art-making. Of all the visual arts media, drawing has primary importance in the Visual arts curriculum, and it is through drawing that children's development in art is most evident. In making art, the process of making is as valuable as the final product.