Introduction: The academic year 2016-2017 has seen a lot of changes in the Art Department at Sherfield School. In September we welcomed Louise Hight, professional artist, as our new prep school Art Teacher. She has been working on a number of exciting projects this year within the prep school and also given the pupils wonderful opportunities to work on some large scale projects in their lunchtimes and after school. In the summer term she organised and took a number of trips to Roche Court, Southampton City Art gallery and the Stanley Spencer museum. In the senior school pupils have worked with Lewis Mason (maternity cover Art Teacher) and Lee-Anne Hampson, (Artist in Residence and acting Head of Department.) At Easter we saw Lewis Mason complete his maternity cover and Sarah Harris re-join us as Head of Art. In the 2017 Summer Showcase you can see the work of our current GCSE and A level students and get a glimpse of just some of the work they have produced over their two years of study. The course content has been diverse and allowed pupils to explore art in the broadest sense of the word; from traditional painting and drawing skills, to much more unusual resin casting and working with latex. Throughout the senior school our other pupils have embarked on ambitious projects that have been inspired by art from across the ages. Some of the more delicate or ambitious projects can be seen on the video that accompanies this exhibition. When I curated this exhibition, one thing is certain, we have a huge wealth of talent at Sherfield and the independent nature and mature approach our pupils take to this highly skilful and difficult subject continues to grow year after year.

Lee-Anne Hampson

Audience Choice Award 2017 Work is on display in a huge number of locations for this exhibition so please feel free to get one of our guides to direct you to any exhibit. While looking around the galleries, please make a note of your favourite piece of prep and senior artwork. Nominations will need to be placed in the box on the drinks table by 6.30pm in order to be counted and the audience choice prize awarded at the end of the night.

Art work

Year 1 Year 1 have been looking at weaving, investigating materials and working on individual pieces as well as a large group weave. They then studied various portraits and facial features before making their own mixed media portrait on canvas.

Year 2 Year 2 have been looking at various styles of painting, namely Van Goghs directional lines and George Seurats pointillism. Having painted individual work in response to what they had learnt the children then worked together to produce two large group paintings.

Year 3 Year 3 have been designing and making giant mini beasts from willow and tissue paper. Having researched their chosen insect the children drew various sketches and then transferred their 2 dimensional designs into 3 dimensional sculptures.

Year 4 Year 4 have been designing and making character puppets. From their initial research of fairy-tale characters they produced real size designs from which to make their puppet. The children worked with various media such as model-magic, paint and fabric, while turning their 2 dimensional designs into a working puppet.

Year 5 Year 5 have been looking at Picassos cubist paintings and produced their own distorted portraits in response. This involved making a collage of the human face from different sources and then selecting appropriate colours to reflect the feelings of the person portrayed.

Year 6 Year 6 have been looking at exotic birds in order to design a piece of art based on their personal research. They had a choice of media, acrylic paint on canvas, silk painting or wire. Each one made different demands on the artist and affected their decision making, resulting in a more individual response.

Year 7 Year 7 have worked on two projects this term, Mythical creatures, where the children designed and made a paper sculpture of their beast. They also worked on a pupil led project titled, Surfaces where they responded to a series of prescribed objectives in order to develop a uniquely personal piece of artwork in any media of their choice.

After School Art Club Years 1,2 and Reception designed their own underwater creatures. These were then drawn in wax onto cotton and the children painted the colours onto the fabric.

Art Lunch Club Children from Year 2 upwards attend the art lunch club and have been looking at doodles. Having designed their own doodle creature the pupils worked together to draw up a large group doodle in pencil and then applied black felt pen.

Year 8 Year 8 have been learning about one point and two point perspective drawing. Having developed their skills they have studied the work of artist David Thorpe. Thorpe created simplified images using paper collage and a limited palette. The students have created cityscape paintings inspired by his work, considering what they have learned about perspective.

Year 9 Year 9 have been studying texture over the past term. They have been thinking about how to replicate various textures using a range of media, and have studied the work of The Boyle Family. The Boyle Family are a group of artists who create representations of the earth. In order to choose their subject matter they would throw a dart at a map, then travel to the selected destination to find an interesting composition. Year 9 have attempted to replicate some of their works using a variety of materials found in the art department, and outside in the school grounds.

Year 10 Year 10 have been working on 2 projects this term to form part of their portfolio submission for GCSE. The first of these was a project on Light. Pupils were able to interpret this theme independently. The second project was inspired by a gallery trip to see the work of Sophie Ryder. Over the course of the year pupils have been working on producing a large scale plaster hand which holds an animal human hybrid of their own design. Due to the technical difficulty of this project, the work on display is still in progress.

GCSE Year 11

Indie Clulow Indie has produced a range of work work over the past two years, inspired by her very personal interpretation of the coursework themes. For her exam project she chose to work on the theme of Out of Place and explored the story of a homeless person using mixed media and textiles.

Talulla Crawford Talulla has been very experimental in the outcomes she has produced over the last two years. For her culture project she was inspired by African masks and designed and made a beautiful beaded face. For her exam piece she chose the starting point of Out of Place and was inspired by the work of Chloe Early in making a relief clay design.

Ryan Gao Over the course Ryan has explored working in both 2 and 3 dimensions. For his culture project he was inspired by Chinese dragons, which led him to produce his own version of a dragon head covered in scales made from the Chinese flag. His externally set project explored the theme of Angles, where he used the patterns and lines from Jim Lambie to create his own angular paper and card sculpture.

Eleanor Green Eleanor has worked methodically and with great personal direction on each project she has been given. She has integrated her excellent nature photography into many of her projects to help her develop ideas and refine her outcomes in media such as photoshop, graffiti and traditional painting and drawing.

Maia Lewis Maia has been very experimental in the media she has chosen to explore for her portfolio projects. She has been inspired by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Celtic art to create designs made out of stones, twigs, sand and leaves. For her Distorted Portrait project she cast a face and made a vacuum formed mould. She then cast this in chocolate and filled it with sweets. From this she developed a film on domestic violence where the female head is shattered by the impact of a male hand.

Lucas Reynolds Lucas has grown as a phenomenal portrait artist over the course. He is equally skilled in charcoal and pencil to pen. One of his most beautiful works is a piece based on Mylie Cyrus, where he has created her face out of the written lyrics of one of her songs for his Culture portfolio project, inspired by Chuck Close.

Kathyrn Seaborne Kathryn has explored a range of different techniques and media throughout the two years of the course and has made some personal pieces that relate to both her friends and her love of dance. Kathryns final exam piece explores the theme of Out of Place through looking at graffiti art and developing her own screen printing style to document how social media has an impact on young peoples lives.

Pip Simpson Pip has been on a huge personal journey this year, where she has discovered her passion for working in three dimensions. The outcomes for each of her portfolio units and her exam piece develop new and exciting media and techniques such as alginate casting, making silicone moulds and working on large scale mixed media pieces. Each of her projects develops her view point on issues felt across the world such as coping with disabilities or pollution.

Bexie Rutherford Throughout the 2 years Bexie developed her skills in portraiture and based a lot of her coursework around this topic. She based her Natural Forms topic on Agnes Cecile, who worked with watercolours and ink, which is something she had not done before. For her culture project she looked at Indian Civilisation, their traditions, beauty, wilderness and colour palettes. Her Distorted Portrait project lead her to using rips and combining both 2D and 3D to create a final piece. The externally set task was based around detail, the use of patterns and portraiture.

Pre sessionals Year 12 have been learning about chiaroscuro - the effect using of extreme light and dark to create contrast. They have studied the work of Caravaggio, and have created a number of drawings using a range of media including chalk, charcoal, soft pastel, ink and bleach, graphite stick and biro.

Year 12 Art

Year 12 Photography Photography students spent their second term creating Unusual Portraits through looking at a series of photographers such as Tim Tadder. They then developed and experimented with their own concept for a final photo shoot.

A Level Year 13

Rana Tabatabaie Rana created her personal investigation on the theme of Intimacy. She investigated the work of Nan Goldin, Tim Gardner and Dan Witz, before taking her own photographs to work from on a large scale. For her externally set task she chose the starting point of Suspended. She investigated mental illness and created a very moving piece of work about anorexia based on a story she read when she was younger. This site specific piece pushed Rana to explore new techniques and media she had never used before and demonstrates the harrowing issues of a story of a young girl who thought she was turning into an angel who didnt need to eat, as she felt her shoulder blades were her growing wings.

Senior After School Art Club Pupils had an opportunity to work from images to create a small canvas where they explored oil painting techniques.

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO

All the hard work pupils across the school have put in to their project work, not just in lessons but after school and during their precious lunchtimes.

The Art department Sarah Harris and Louise Hight for creating wonderfully inspirational projects for our pupils to work on and for spending hours mounting and hanging the work

The facilities team for helping hang the work on the gallery walls and moving furniture around to accommodate the exhibition

Ilana Bennett and the Sherfield Musicians for providing a beautiful sound backdrop

House prefects for acting as Tours Guides

Holroyd Howe and Sarah Jane Nicholls for providing refreshments

A very special thanks to the Paddock and Hampson family for coming in to transport large sculptures and delicate pieces of art work to the gallery