artists of the week!
Celebrating our last Artists of the Week for this Half-Term!
As we finish for the break, the Art Department are proud to announce their final Artists of the Week for this half-term: Year 12 students Hebe and May.
Huge congratulations to both and we are delighted to showcase their work, with context and background provided by Head of Department Mrs Nanvazadeh:
Art, Craft, Design and Photography at A Level is about developing an adventurous approach to students’ practical skills and ideas. Students gain a deeper understanding of past and contemporary art, crafts and design, in order to produce thought-provoking work, within sketchbooks, digitally and on a large scale.
The course is designed and assessed to document thought processes and show a journey of ideas, portrayed with various creative media. Building upon strengths from the GCSE Fine Art/Photography, students will develop skills which support their studies in every subject. They will improve their ability to research and analyse information, solve problems, find, and understand links and connections which will result in creative personal outcomes.
Painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, computer-aided design, animation, film, textiles and life-drawing are amongst the most common media employed, but candidates are encouraged to introduce any media they feel necessary to their work.
Sixth Form students benefit from dedicated studio spaces and more time for personal tuition, so that individual directions and ideas can be pursued.
We regularly run trips to galleries in London and are aiming for a trip to a foreign city once a year. This gives the students an excellent grounding, and will enable them to be prepared for higher education and employment.
Foundation Studies:
The qualities we have come to value most highly in art in the twentieth century have always been present in art, but usually, in the past, have been characterised by only modest and secondary work; that is drawings. These characteristics include spontaneity, creative speculation, experimentation, directness, simplicity, abbreviation, expressiveness, immediacy, personal vision, technical diversity, modesty of means, rawness, fragmentation, discontinuity, unfinishedness and open ended-ness. These have always been the characteristics of drawing".
Michael Craig Martin (Stout, 2014, p.9)
A drawn mark is trace evidence. It is a mark left when something which you have picked up or engineered to move dashes against a surface. The surface might be stationary, but there is movement implicit in the marks. Drawing is a fundamental skill in art and design, and in the autumn term drawing workshops are delivered, where different approaches can be explored.
This period also supports students in producing work that can support studio practice and entry to further education in creative areas. This project is based on a personal response to changing themes, such as ‘Collections’. Students go through a series of skills-based workshops before developing their ideas into a final piece.
Aims:
• Experiment with a broad range of drawing and methods
• Explore new skills, techniques, and methods in your drawing practice.
• Develop an understanding of your drawing skills and how to use them in your practice.
• Develop your knowledge of historical and contemporary drawing practitioners and use.
• Develop reflection to develop your own learning.
For rolling up-to-date news on the work produced by our students and the Department, follow:
Instagram: @urmston_grammar_art
X: @UGS_Art
Pinterest: @urmstongrammar_art