Let's take a glance in to our Art department
18th November 2022
As always it’s a busy time in the art department, but when isn’t it? The new Yr7 students have settled in well to their new routine and have been embarking on their first project: I am an Artist. The emphasis is to build on what they did at primary school and develop solid drawing and painting skills which underpin everything that they will do in art over the next few years. The work initially looks at how to represent objects in 3D so they are making images that show an understanding of tonal values, light direction and shadow. Now this part of the project is complete, they will begin to study colour theory using the colour wheel and the colour sphere and learn how to mix paints successfully. The Yr7s are also my tutor group so we have already developed an early morning watercolour club before form time so before long they’ll be turning out watercolour masterpieces to rival Turner.
Having already gone through these projects, the Yr8 students are working on a project called My City with a focus on architecture and the work of the Austrian painter, architect and environmentalist Hunterwasser. Ahead of his time, Hunterwasser was coming up with ecological designs for buildings back in the 1950s. Students are asked to consider the state of the urban environment and what designers and architects can do to improve the quality of life in our cities. They initially learnt how to draw in 1, 2 and 3-point perspective to make accurate architectural drawings and are now exploring notable architectural designs from around the world.
Yr9 are doing a project called Music and Lyrics and investigating the links between music and the visual arts through the work of Kandinsky amongst others. They have studied the work of Picasso as well in how he shifted the course of 20th Century art from figurative to abstract, and then taken further by Kandinsky in creating non-objective art. Kandinsky had a condition known as synesthesia where the senses are muddled up in the brain which causes a person to see colours when words and sounds are made or even to taste colour. Google art and culture have created some great resources where you can play a Kandinsky painting to understand better what he saw.
In KS4 the Yr10 students are learning about abstraction as it developed through the genre of still life and the early 20th century art movements Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism. They have created many still life works which are aimed at developing their observational skills and sense of form through a large range of materials and art media. The IGCSE criteria require that students refine and develop their work so they are using viewfinders to search for new compositions within the work they have already created, and they have also made a study of British abstract artist the late Patrick Heron and the relationship he had with St.Ives, a famous artist colony in Cornwall, England.
The Yr11 students are busy, busy, busy as their mock exam fast approaches in early December and they are assembling their personal portfolios in readiness for the final work they will create in their exam. After that, there is not time to rest on their laurels as the final exam paper will be released in January and it will be a hectic few weeks of preparation before they complete the course in April. They have individual project titles and have produced a variety of personal and independent work on themes such My Identity and the Natural World.
Finally, last but not least, our BTEC students are also on their own personal journeys of study responding to design briefs on the themes of creating a campaign to encourage young people to get involved with the World Health Organisation’s world health day with topics as diverse as climate change and mental health for Yr12 and the Yr13 set assignment is on improving people’s health through the development of plant-based food. Challenging design briefs that are aimed at creating a realistic programme of inquiry that will help shape the students into professional designers engaged in detailed research and development of ideas.
In a nutshell, that is term one almost done, phew! Bring on term two.
