Year 7

This year in the art department seems to have flown by. The year 7’s have settled in and are producing fantastic work based on the work of LS. Lowry.  Some students went to Tate Britain to see an exhibition of his work and members of the public complimented me on their behaviour and their level of engagement with the task I had given them. These students were able to talk about Lowry’s work to the rest of the class when they got back.

Recently we have been out to Malvern Avenue to draw aspects of the local environment including St Andrews Church. We are now using these drawings to make our own Lowry compositions. 

 

 

 

 

Year 8

Year 8’s have been working on another artist from the North, David Hockney. They looked at Hockneys bright and colourful landscapes before creating their own in oil pastels and collage. These look lovely as you can see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 9

Year 9 students are working towards their AQA certificate course and have already completed the first unit on other cultures making some lovely plates.

Some students went to Kew Gardens and got muddy! We climbed the tree house, visited the tropical and temperate glass houses and met some giant mushrooms made out of willow. We also saw some incredible botanical art in the Sherwood gallery and saw the numerous paintings by the naturalist Marianne North from her round the world trip made in the1850’s.  Ideas and images collected on this trip will help students with their next AQA certificate topic ‘The Environment’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GCSE

One year GCSE art students are in the final push to complete coursework which is due at the end of January. They have been working on the theme of Architecture looking at religious buildings in London and the work of John Piper as well as the amazing architecture of Antonio Gaudi for their ceramics. They will get their exam question in February.

A Level

The A Level Art students spent a day in London looking for ideas and thinking about how Art has changed over time. To begin the day they started at the National Portrait Gallery looking at Tudor portraits of royalty and paintings of the famous and powerful from kings to politicians to film stars and other popular figures. The most recent picture of royalty was a multi-layered digital portrait of Queen Elizabeth by artist Chris

Levine and holographer Rob Munday. Made by taking 200 digital images a second, the resulting hologram was constantly moving. A giant electric blue cockerel by German artist Katharina Fritsch on top of the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square was a glorious sight. Over the past seven years the Fourth Plinth has become home to some of the world’s most innovative artworks.

After that, lunch was at a very smart Scottish restaurant (McDonald’s) followed by a jaunt down the Strand tothe Courtauld Gallery where some very famous paintings like Manet’s ‘Bar at the Folly Bergere’ and Van Gogh’s portrait minus an ear, hung as well as some lovely studies for Seurat’s ‘Bathers’ painting. The Ice rink was very tempting as were the Christmas stalls full of inventive and clever items - a good advert for what you can do with an ‘A’ Level in Art!

The best was kept for last and students really enjoyed the wide open spaces at the Saatchi Gallery as well as the scale of the work in the ‘Body Language’ exhibition, including an installation of grave stones and a pool of industrial oil which created incredible illusions of space and depth.

A Level students have also been working on the themes of organic forms and still life and there is currently an exhibition of selected work in the School foyer.

Art Competition

 The Art Department is running a competition in conjunction with Transport for London to design an Oyster Card holder.  It is part of a safety campaign for vulnerable pedestrians i.e. you! Young people are the most vulnerable group and the most likely to get hurt while crossing the road. We have had a number of recent incidents in the area, one fatal, so please get involved and enter your ideas and art work. See the Art Department for a template and further information.