Art

The sixth form is your opportunity to get close to the life of a professional artist or designer. Art within the sixth appears to have very few boundaries. Influences are gained from current fine art practice and all students at this level, having worked through the art programme at this school, are well equipped to realise their artistic ambitions. Of course, you will have much more time available to you than at any other time in your school life. By this I mean your contact time with your teachers will increase dramatically. This means that you will notice a real advancement in your work from day one. Once again it would be your ‘self’, your individualism that we would be aiming to encourage during these years. If you want to study art or design at a top college or university this could be the environment in which to produce your portfolio.

All our past students that have wanted to enter the world of art have done so. As well as local colleges for foundation courses, students have gained entry to places like St Martins School of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Chelsea School of Art and Edinburgh University.

To help support you in your studies we arrange a series of trips through the sixth form. We alternate between a London Galleries tour for two days and a European tour for three days. In 2007 we visited Paris. It was quite convenient as we could fly from Bristol and this meant we could spend more time visiting galleries. Trips like this are always immense fun and a great learning experience.

A/AS Option

This has proved to be a very successful programme. It is unfortunate that you must always feel that you are in an examination year but if you have taken art to this level you must really want to do the subject and everything that you do through this subject is an opportunity for you to show how able you are. I always think that it is the most amazing thought, that through art you can produce something that has never existed before and but for your input it might never have. We will encourage you to believe in all that you can do through this subject and will help you to achieve it.

Of course you would enter this programme for the qualification but it is also about the generation of work for a portfolio. The art world is always about your ‘portfolio’. It will get you into art school and it will get you into the door of a major company or art gallery to begin your working life, be it in the design industry or the art world.

The work that you produce through this course will be project based. Through consultation with your teachers you will decide upon you brief for each project. You will then write the brief which will form the basis of your study. Once again you will be developing your workbook mentality and communicating your artistic ideas as confidently and thoughtfully as you can. Each project (three for AS and three for A2) would need to have a conclusionary piece of work. This would be your final piece of work and could take the form of printmaking, sculpture, drawing or painting.

IB Diploma Option

This is a very exciting option which we intend to offer, as I believe it offers a particular student even more scope to develop their own practice.

Through art, the differences between A’ level and the IB programme are not great, but there is a slightly different level of involvement required for this qualification. You will be expected to develop a higher level of research and you would be expected to consider art globally. Art is changing the way the world looks and you would need to consider all influences across the world. London is often considered the centre of the art world but perhaps Shanghai will compete in a few years time. You would be expected to be pro-active in your research. This would mean visiting art fairs and galleries in your own time. This would enable you to produce well informed research.

Art at both A’ level and through the IB programme, can be taught in a shared environment for a good deal of the time. After all we are talking about art students; who are individuals, developing their own practice in a studio space.

As with the A’ level programme sketchbooks/workbooks are the very foundation for everything that you go on to achieve through this subject. They will inform you and others of all that you are aiming to achieve.

 

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