About
Huntley
Macpherson
ART EDUCATOR · ARTIST
01 · Introduction
I am an art teacher and a practising artist. For more than a decade I have worked across three countries — South Africa, China, and Canada — and across three subjects: Visual Arts, English, and, when the schools needed it, Design and Technology and Computer Applications Technology. Every classroom has been different. The through-line has been the same: the belief that making things carefully, together, changes the people who do it.
I keep a studio practice alongside my teaching. It is not a hobby that runs parallel; it is the reason I can teach the way I do. When I paint, I remember what it feels like to sit with an unfinished idea. That memory is what I bring to school on Monday.
02 · Teaching philosophy
I teach as though every child in the room is already an artist — because they are. My job is not to hand them a skill they lack. It is to keep the studio door open long enough for them to notice what they were already able to do, and to give them the tools, time, and quiet attention they need to take the next step.
I plan projects around three questions: What is worth looking at closely? What is worth making carefully? What is worth telling someone about afterwards? If a lesson can honestly answer even one of those, it is a lesson I am willing to give.
I believe deeply in privacy for young makers. Student work on this site is shared with permission and, by default, without names. Where a first name, initial, or pseudonym appears, it is what the artist chose.
03 · Artist statement
My studio work is about paying attention to places — the semi-arid landscapes of my childhood, the interiors of the rooms I have taught in, the corners of gardens where light changes. I move between painting, collage, and printmaking depending on what a particular idea needs.
The work tends to be quiet. I am interested in the moments before something happens, or after — the leftover atmosphere, rather than the event. I keep notes and sketchbooks constantly, and finished pieces often begin months earlier as a single line in a margin.
04 · Qualifications
Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.)
Teaching qualification.
Honours degree — Curriculum Design and Development
Research-based specialisation in curriculum practice.
Quebec teaching qualification
Licensed to teach in the province of Quebec, Canada.
Visual Arts, English, Design & Technology, CAT
Subjects taught at primary and secondary levels.
International experience
Teaching posts in South Africa, China, and Canada.
Ten+ years in the classroom
And still learning.