Year 11 Art Exhibition 2021 - 2022
2021 - 2022
Year 11 Art Exhibition
Contents 6 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68
Foreword Masa Ali Douglas Bonnier Defne Canonoglu Cami Checa Laviada Veerashwa Poddar Somya Sahu Konoha Shimizu Ava Goldberg Giovanna Caprotti Andrea Ghandour Carolina Rohm Cosima Armleder Emma Wurts Gloria Rivera Cuellar Issei Akita Jessica Little
72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120
Kazuki Shimizu Leni Hinrichs Liya Manenkova Lou Belissent Mia Gentzbourger Miguel Granados Martinez Gama Natalia Amike Sofia Davy Natalia Kalach Hans Nela Brack Mirei "Nicole" Jo Yuqing "Vicky" Jin Monroe Maercks
Foreword
Welcome from the Art Department It is with great pleasure that we introduce to you selected artworks of our current year 11 GCSE and Pre-IB art, craft and design students. This year, students have been required to submit a personal portfolio which demonstrates their ability to develop ideas and refine work by exploring ideas and experimenting with appropriate media. They have continued to record their ideas, observations and insights, and then present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions, and demonstrates their understanding of visual language. All important facets of the assessment criteria. The culmination of the course took place on the 21st and 22nd of April, where our amazing students produced their final outcome during the 10 hour controlled assessment. I am sure that you will be suitably impressed by the quality of their handling of materials and thoughtfulness of the investigated themes produced during this period.
In this book you will find a plethora of work, some preparatory sketches, others, more refined response to artists and studied art movements, that deals with our students interpretations of themes such as still life and identity, through the use of oil and acrylic paint; exciting darkroom photographic experiments investigating environmentalism; creative, sculptural and mixed media imagery, as well as students own personal interpretations of the final theme, ‘Reflections’. For us, one of the highlights of the year included the memorable visit to the Kunstmuseum in Bern to visit the Meret Oppenheim surrealist art exhibition. The work inside the exhibition was mirrored by the surreal atmosphere in Bern that day, as students witnessed marching protests through the mediaeval streets and squares. Inspiration and thought provoking questions were certainly reflected upon that day and we hope many interesting artworks were 6
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produced as a result of this experience. It is always a delight to watch our students grow in confidence through their time at Aiglon. Both our GCSE and Pre-IB groups have made tremendous progress and we certainly feel that they are ready to take on the challenges that lay before them should they choose to take IB Visual Arts next year. We hope you enjoy reading the artists' statements included in this book and enjoy the exhibition of their work. Kindest regards, Lyndon Evans, Rosie Curtis, Mervyn Earl The Art Team
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Masa Ali Exeter
"I have neither rules nor methods," says Pierre-Auguste Renoir in his artist statement. Saying it so abruptly may come across as ignorant, but I prefer to be referred to as stubborn. Once I've made up my mind, I don't like wasting time and I put my plan into action as soon as possible. It's difficult for me to express myself and what I'm thinking or imagining. It may appear unreasonable to those who have the luxury of expressing themselves without being misunderstood, but it is no one's fault. As a child, I was completely obsessed with Japanese animation, also known as anime. I became interested in shows in various languages, English, Turkish, and Korean, but primarily Japanese. Watching anime still brings me joy, but now I observe the techniques used in its creation and how certain things 8
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appeal to the viewers. I did digital art for a year and a half before coming to Aiglon, but since then, I've switched to acrylic and discovered my passion in oil painting. Instead of the surreal and fictional art that is common in anime, I prefer hyperrealism.
I believe we will never truly understand if we see the world in the same way. As a result, in my work, I like to show my intentions in a clear manner, which allows me to convey my ideas the way I want.
I've always been interested in pushing myself. Hyperrealism, especially in oil paint, is extremely difficult, and while I may give up at times, I'll actually be thinking about a different approach to the piece. Whether that means throwing it out or simply repainting over it.
Not only am I concentrating on hyperrealism at the moment, but I'm also attempting to shed light on the entire concept of 'expectations vs reality.' As a Palestinian, I am aware of the amount of media coverage we get; I am witnessing it firsthand, and I continue to believe that not enough people are aware of it. Coming to a diverse community like aiglon made me realise what the media had to offer in desperate times, and as an artist, I can use my skills to portray what the people of my land have wanted to do for ages.
In my work, especially recently, I've explored more ideas involving realism, as illustrated by my new oil hand painting, the unfortunate hand sculpture made of clay, and my old acrylic skull painting.
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Douglas Bonnier St Louis
Throughout my childhood, I have always been very interested in art and especially photography. I believed that I could one day become a well-known aerial photographer, and even opened an online shop for my photos at the age of 12. That dream, like many, slowly left my mind as I got older and realised that I had other more exponential dreams and hobbies that I wanted to make into reality. During year 11 pre-IB Art, I learned a new aspect of art, the ideas and the visions of the artist behind the masterpieces. I started to understand the main points in an artwork. Which all led to me making my own responses to these artists using my techniques and skills but still incorporating the same ideas and key features that the original artist had made.
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Over the year we have been working on multiple different artists, all from paintings with Jonathon Yeo, to reflective glass photography with Kate Brinkworth. My favourite artists to respond to were Robert Rauschenberg and Kate Brinkworth, as they produced artworks where I felt like I could find new ways to show their main ideas, but using an objective, a lens, and a lot of editing to incorporate my ideas seamlessly. All of my studies start with a good amount of research, a mind map with all of my ideas and small sketches of what I could experiment with. And, most importantly, my quick but deep visualisation of my future outcome. As I stated earlier, photography is my main route when it comes to art, and this year most of my artworks have been based on this media and I have been enjoying it. My Rauschenberg response was a success, my inverse “Rayogram” did just what I had intended, and I was able to show my personality within the mosaïque, just like Robert did with his collages.
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I am unbelievably proud of my work with Brinkworth, my photographs of the glass coils were immaculate as they used the light and colours, the same way that I had visualised them to.
Defne Canonoglu Exeter
During my Pre IB art course, I was able to be inspired by many artists and discover my interest in painting. I was particularly inspired by the artist Kate Brinkworth, her interpretation and paintings of man-made objects inspired me to make still life paintings that had a bright background. Another artist that inspired me to my fullest abilities was MC Esher. He did many works on reflection by using the technique of cross hatching using pen in black or white. I was able to simulate an artwork that had a reflection on my personal views and dreams along with my own portrait. The paintings that truly influenced me were paintings of landscapes, still-life objects, and paintings on reflections, our overarching theme. The techniques I focused on were: acrylic paintings, oil paintings, pen and pencil drawings. I discovered a passion and interest in acrylic paintings and 16
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found the medium very interesting to work with. Acrylic paint, being the technique I used most this year, I tried to push my boundaries and create a self-portrait using acrylic, which really pushed my abilities. Pencil drawings were something I have never been able to do in the past. I experimented with them and began to understand the motives and techniques of pencil drawings. It made me persevere and made me open up a new eye for art. I developed my ideas from making mind maps and artistry studies, I either made a response or brainstormed an idea. I usually went for works that included paintings and art that would be beyond my skill level. Works that I am really proud of include my first acrylic artwork on still-life objects. I took photos of objects and began painting them and was inspired by Giorgio Morandi. Another piece of work that I am proud of is my self-portrait along with my response artwork to Man Ray. 17
My artworks are usually all linked together by the idea of painting either still life or portraits. This year I focused on my abilities that I didn’t know I had and tried to build my confidence up. I focused on the lighting, and texture within all of my paintings, and it made the outcome of my artworks. I am personally very interested in expanding my skills towards painting and making a statement with my artworks.
Cami Checa Laviada Exeter
During my Pre-IB year at Aiglon, I experienced some of the starting points for IGCSE art. I have worked on many of my skills including acrylic paint, responding to the artist Maya Kopitseva, oil paint to help complete my artist studies on ToiletPaperMagazine, collages by getting inspiration from Robert Rauschenberg, and even dark-room photograms by looking at artists such as like Man Ray. I learned a massive amount about surrealist artists and painting techniques by going to the Bern museum and looking at works from Meret Oppenheim. Even though I have personally tried many different techniques, ranging from pencil to photograms, the one I put most to practise into was painting with oil paints. My favourite technique, and the one I'm most confident working with, is pencil, but I wanted to improve and learn how to be able to paint with oils so, I chose to do most of my work with that.
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I firstly start every piece of work by brainstorming from theme ideas, or even artists that remind me of the theme we are looking at. I always try to find artists that I personally like and try to get some of their techniques to be able to apply them onto my own work. I feel like every individual piece of work is different, but, I believe that they all have the same feel or at least you can tell that they have the same style just by my technique and ideas. I try to gain inspiration from a lot of society's viewpoints and reflections and always try to include that in my artworks. I go by what I think is funky, colourful, or even interesting, and try to see if I can mould it my own by making it have a deeper meaning and reeling it back into the theme of reflections. There is no specific intention I want to achieve with my works but, I want to have people look at it and relate back to themselves or to society to see the world in a different way and start experiencing it in a different way, not only by what society's 21
standards say. With this final theme that is ‘reflections’, I want to create something with the same feel and something that can be seen as reflections in society.
Veerashwa Poddar Delaware
The themes and ideas I have worked with in my works have been quite varied. There is no one single idea or theme that binds everything together. I have created a piece about climate change and environmentalism, a piece about reflections and surrealism, a minimalist piece, etc. Most of my work is made simply because I liked the idea or thought it would look cool, not because of some deeper idea or theme. During the course of this year I have worked with a wide variety of media. Photography, photograms, oil paintings, acrylic paintings, and pencil. I experimented with acrylic quite a bit this year and I enjoy using it. I find that it can add flair and life to a canvas without all the hassle of oil paints. However, since I am most familiar with pencils and sketches I quite like it. I find that pencil allows me to cover the widest amount of ideas, and cover the most amount of concepts. I personally like pencil as it allows me to cover and draw surrealist art, rather than acrylic which I tend to 24
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use relatively realistically. My interests that have influenced my work have primarily been an interest in environmentalism, and a worry about climate change. Along with a general interest in Picasso and Surrealist art. Aside from my Raushenberg response photogram most of my works do not have an ‘intention’, most of my works are to be interpreted as the viewer sees fit. I wish for my work to be quite vague and obscure, my work should leave the audience with questions. My vision for presenting work is to put it in a gallery with some obscene, ridiculous price tag, and say ‘it's modern art’ so the price tag is justified. Otherwise I will just choose my best work and hang it somewhere else.
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Somya Sahu Exeter
Throughout my artwork, I have tried my best to explore and spread awareness about different yet similar mental illnesses and how they don’t make you abnormal. The difference between individuals' perspectives influences me to show and acknowledge how different human brains can interact as it fascinates me how alike and different we all are. Throughout my artwork, I have tried my best to explore and spread awareness about different yet similar mental illnesses and how they don’t make you abnormal. I chose this as my topic because in the 20th-century, mental illness should be spoken about and be taken seriously as it is a very widespread issue in today's society. I have done a few pencil studies as I enjoy using this material and I find it helps me bring out the details in my artwork. I also enjoy mixing materials such as pencil and acrylics as it brings more to the piece and shows the different 28
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textures, making my artwork more interesting to look at. I have slowly started to lean in more towards fashion and it has begun to influence my artwork more. Isabel Marant has been one of the designers that have inspired me for as long as I can remember. Most of my artwork contains different materials to show the contrast and details, this is how I bring my art to life. The different materials, in my perspective, show how different the world is to different people and how it is seen by different individuals. The difference between individuals' perspectives influenced me to show and acknowledge how human brains can interact as it fascinates me how alike yet different we all are.
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Konoha Shimizu Clairmont
Throughout my GCSE art course, I challenged myself to explore the ideas of emotions with colours, stitching, clay and many other unique artist styles. During this course, I have particularly liked using graphite pencils as my main source of media with some oil paint which shows the fusion of tones and colour, achieving uniqueness among fluid painting, and I also used clay which got me to get out of my comfort zones. I have tried to match the media I used to my artists, yet I also found it fascinating to use different media on purpose from the reference artists since it added the sense of “yourself” to the work and not just copies. I have always liked using my artwork as a reflection to the experiences I had in my life. I also strongly believe that relating to a piece of art work and being emotionally pulled by it is the most crucial thing in art. For example the clay hand I made inspired by Katharin Morling shows how a clay hand is digging into a clay surface. This was supposed to show how the same 32
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kind of material is hurting one another. This could be referred to how one's self is hurting themself. Since there are thousands of people in this world who have magnificent art skills which are so breathtaking, I cannot be one of them. But I could be unique through my work in my own style and way for my audiences. So my intentions behind my work is for a person to feel related. I do this by taking in universal themes such as Family, relationships and more. This art course has also opened up my perspectives and made me think about the importance of photography, and I started developing the joy for it which I did not have before, some of the key Photoshoots I have done are my photography and paint response I have made about the spectacular surrealist artist YDK Morimoe which I have experienced with lighting and how that affects the mood, and my photography response to the Apart and Together project which I have took photos of a girl’s face covered in bandages, a girl looking upside down through a mirror, and a girl tearing blood with bruises on her arms and 33
faces. Overall, the IGCSE art course has helped me to progress tremendously through the use of different mediums and looking at many great Artists.
Ava Goldberg Clairmont
During my pre ib art course, I was able to experiment and explore with many different artists and their techniques. After visiting the art museum in Bern I really got interested in surrealist art like Meret Oppenheim and how she aims to revolutionise human experience. I did many responses with art to surrealism such as working with painting and collages. I really enjoy using oil paint when doing art because I like how it doesn't dry quickly and you can really try and get every detail down over the span of a couple days or a week. Also with oil paint it makes blending really fun. Whilst on my art journey I experimented with a lot of different techniques from water colours to clay. When working with clay it was very difficult but also really interesting and fun to see what I could sculpt with no experience before. Although that was really cool, a technique I spent some time on was collages. 36
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My collages would interpret painting and have different types of techniques on one canvas. When starting out with a new idea for art, I would put it on an artist's study. My artist study would say about my artists work and what inspires me and what I could create inspired by them. From there, I chose the best things about the artist's work and captured it within mine. Every project required me to experiment with something different, showing my vast assortment of techniques. I want my audience to really understand my art, and be able to know my intentions behind the paint. I want them to see my art and say woah that's really good. My outcomes are all very different. I wouldn't say I focus on one thing mainly, but a lot of different perspectives. I do work with faces a lot but also with just eyes or just lips. I also work with landscapes quite a bit. I really like David Hockney and his use of colour with landscapes and the warm environment it gives you.
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Giovanna Caprotti Le Cerf
During my GCSE art course I was able to explore themes and issues that I was interested in such as war and human emotions. I have worked with multiple types of media, but I particularly enjoyed working with cardboard to make sculptures and working with oil for multiple paintings. I also enjoyed working with acrylic paint but only for expressive paintings because it works well in giving paintings texture. I have been inspired by artists such as Picasso, and Kathe Kollwitz and have used family pictures and stories to explore the theme of war. Overall, I have enjoyed my experience during my GCSE art course and how it allowed me to explore my interests and express them through art and I hope that the audience will be able to comprehend the meaning of my art.
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Andrea Ghandour Alpina
During my GCSE course, I have explored many artists and styles. Edward Hopper and Ayjaja were the two artists that inspired me the most, Edward Hopper taught me how to use paint and Ayjaja taught me how to use watercolour. I mostly focused on watercolour which has been the best style I have tried yet, I have learned how to mix and blend the colours and shape paintings. That was the style I used for my mock exam. After focusing so much on watercolour, I am now trying out some different styles like clay and oil paint. I have never used clay or oil paint before and after trying it out, I felt more comfortable with oil paint. I liked oil paint because of how I can mix the colours really well and if I made a mistake, I could fix it easily. I still need to work more on my oil painting skills but I think it is going well.
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For my ideas, I usually make a mind map or draw sketches in my book and then make a piece out of the ideas that I got. I want my work to turn out very well and detailed, I want it to be my best work but to do that I need to use all the knowledge I have. I want people to admire my work and have different ideas. I want to have some pieces that make people think a lot and like them. Also, I want everyone that looks at my art to say why they like the pieces or dislike them. Then, with the responses I got, I can improve my work and use the ideas of other people and combine them with mine. To display my work, I think I would like to get one point in common with every art piece that I make by putting the common point in the middle and attaching some kind of strings to all the pieces to bring them back to the common point.
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Carolina Rohm Exeter
During my Pre-IB course this year, I began by developing different artistic skills such as pen drawing, continuous line drawing and acrylic. Through this period of experimentation, I was able to see the positives and negatives to each medium and find the one that best suited the piece I was doing. I really enjoyed using photography to further develop my project on reflection, as well as gouache. I have explored themes of reflection, empowerment, feminism and age through my work this year. My favourite medium to work with is oil paint, as I find it blends smoothly, gives me time to develop different areas and go back, and I am able to get the amount of detail that works the best for me. However, as previously mentioned photography has helped me develop some of my newer ideas as I love the ability to take a series of photographs, and the flexibility it provides.
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I was heavily influenced by David Samuel Stern's woven portraits, and I recreated one of his typical intricate artworks with a portrait of me and my grandmother. I tied my works together at the end by giving a tiny reflection on what this work means to me and how it unites under the theme of the project. Through my work I was able to reflect on certain aspects of my identity and how they influence me, and due to this gained a better understanding of myself. Going forward, I want to be more adventurous and try mixing different media such as acrylic and photography in order to create a more complex artwork.
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Cosima Armleder Le Cerf
During my 2 years in the art IGCSE course, I was able to explore many different art mediums such as acrylic, water colour, oil, collages and many more. I was particularly inspired with expressive art such as Jean Michel Basquiat and Jenny Saville, trying to create my own interpretation and integrate their techniques into my art. In year 10 we looked at how I could develop and refine my art skills, learning techniques such as perspective and shading, whereas in year 11 we started to cover themes such as apart/together where I tried to demonstrate how nature and the human body works together to keep us alive. Another theme we looked at was reflection where I tried to reflect on human nature using Andy Warhol and Pop Art to reflect on consumerism. Throughout these 2 years, we as well learned photography skills in order to take reference pictures for our 52
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art work. I experimented with multiple techniques and found that I like mixing media, I realised that I like creating expressive pieces with collages and acrylic to make my art pieces, therefore I pushed myself to develop my use of acrylic and integrating different media. My favourite pieces include my mock examination and artist studies that I have created throughout the years. I am very interested in the human face and integrating it into different abstract backgrounds using expressive art styles. In the future, I would like to develop my refinery skills and develop my art style further.
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Emma Wurts Clairmont
Throughout my Pre-IB art course I have explored many themes and Ideas. I have learned about many different artists this year including; Matisse, Kieth Haring, Basquiat, ThreeAsFour, Lora Marie Durr, and Meret Oppenhiem. Within this individual artist studies I have studied various styles of art. For example, Fauvism, surrealism, contemporary, neo expressivism, pop art, fashion, and abstract. Learning about these different styles has encouraged me to try many different media. When I was inspired by Haring, I did a realistic monochromatic oil painting portrait contrasted with colourful acrylic pop art . When I created my Basquait artist study, we were studying “reflection”. This correlates well, as Basquiat reflected a lot of his beliefs and life into his work. For my Basquiat inspired piece I have used many different forms of media layered and collaged over one another. For example, acrylic, ink, oil pastilles, paper, sharpie and gauche. 56
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Experimenting with layering many different media is very interesting as you never know what the exact result is going to be. Similarly, when I did my threeasfour artist response, I used both collage and photography. Usually when I use multiple media I am creating something more abstract and surreal. Meanwhile, when I use one media, I am usually creating something more realistic with less room for interpretation. Similarly, when I am doing pencil sketches, the final piece is usually more realistic. For the unit reflection, I mainly focused on a reflection of society. This is apparent on my mind map for this unit. I chose society as it is reflected in our daily life very frequently and is very significant to everyone. Also, the art work you can respond to “reflection of society” can vary as there are many different directions you can go. From abstract, neo-expressionism to realism and photography. All my individual artworks are tied together to a cohesive body of work by the intent behind them. All my work has a similar message connecting them that , personally relate to. Although, I 57
think anyone can try and find a way to relate or understand some of them even if what they come up with is not my intended message.
Gloria Rivera Cuellar Clairmont
During the academic year, in the art course, I was able to experiment with different techniques and artists, mainly I was inspired by Vincent van Gogh and his distinguishable brush strokes and themes common to real life or nature, I was also inspired by Piet van den boog and the bright colours like cyan, yellow and magenta, I was also inspired by Piet van den boog and the striking colours such as cyan, yellow and magenta, as well as the different textures of his artwork and how he conveys emotions through his portraits, Mary Cassatt with her impressionistic style and her works focused on the family environment, as well as the portraits of Brandon Lillidbreg and the way he mixes images in the same work, to create others. All of these artists were a great help in creating each of my artworks, each of them gave me different ideas, styles, techniques and approaches. 60
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Around this year I was experimenting with multiple techniques and materials, I used pencils, pencils, oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolours and markers, although the material I prefer to use and I love is oil paint, this year was my first time experimenting with this material, however it was very easy to learn the correct technique. Experimenting with bright colours, and creating monochromatic paintings was out of my comfort zone, but I made different works in order to experiment. I enjoyed being able to create different textures with the bold colours, as well as creating different chromatic scales. To develop my projects, I try to find a focus and from that I brainstorm with whatever comes to mind at the time, then merge them together to create the main idea. I am proud of all my works, but especially the portrait I made, in monochromatic colours, in my art exam. All my works are connected because they are all influenced by nature, whether it is the colours that refer to nature or natural 61
elements, and I try to include the environment where I grew up, my family, my culture, etc. I like painting because it is an art which has existed since prehistoric times, which has evolved over time. It is a form of expression in which I can show my thoughts and inspirations, creating paintings which convey a message, express feelings, tell stories and dreams, and reflect who I am. Painting allows me to show what the world is like through my eyes, being an expression of my soul.
Issei Akita Belvedere
The themes and media that I have recently explored in my work are clay and self portrait. In year 10 I chose to do drawing, painting and photography. Other media I have worked with are paint/drawing/printing/clay. I especially liked drawing. The artists that have influenced my work the most are Hajime Sorayama. I chose to explore this artist because I liked beautiful reflections of machines and mirrored surfaces. Sorayama often draws pictures with the theme of stars, and I was strongly attracted to that. All of his machines reflect the desert on mirrored surfaces to create a lustre that accentuates his unique and beautiful metallic depictions. All of my artworks connect because I'm working on something I like. I used to draw by copying pictures of my favourite music jackets, or by reconstructing 64
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my own ideas from the works of my favourite artists. In all of my work I am trying to achieve ‘Reflections’ from a variety of ideas. I want to try landscape painting. I would like to improve my skill of painting and focusing on smaller details.
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Jessica Little Le Cerf
The themes and ideas that I have explored in my work are photography and some metal work as well which I am doing for my 3rd artist study. When I was in year 11 I chose to do a painting for my mock exam and some photography on the mountains of the moon reflecting onto the mountains and also of a building which has glass that reflected onto the mountains. The different media that I have worked with are oil pastel,pencil, watercolour, as well as ink and as well some painting. I especially liked the watercolour painting. The reason why I like watercolour painting is because I liked the colours of it and I also loved the mixing of the colours and the bleeding of it. The artists that have influenced my work the most are Norman Foster and Frank Gehry. I chose to explore these artists because I liked all the designs of 68
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their architecture and the way it reflects. All of my artworks connect because they all have reflections in it and as well as buildings that have reflections in it as well. In all of my work I am trying to make a building like a small house that one side has glass like doors and that it reflects on to a pool. The things that I would like to improve on is to try different medias that would be good for my final piece and the other thing that I would like to improve is my sketch book by the writing and so I can get a good grade for my GCSEs.
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Kazuki Shimizu Alpina
Since I was a child, I have been interested in art. However there were many things I had never tried! During my GCSE art course I learned lots of technique and experiences. The themes and ideas I have explored in my work have always baffled me. Because until now, I haven’t think about meaning behind the art. But I realized about how the hidden meaning of a picture affects people. By containing meaning, people think about art work and begin to take an interest when they see it. This is one of the things I learned from GCSE. The different medias I have worked with are painting, drawing, taking picture and claying. I especially liked clay, the reason why I like clay is because I haven’t tried in my life. Then I made a pot which was inspired by Kate Malone. I have also painted many artworks inspired by other artists. For example, I painted a human face on my 72
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brush. It was also a method that other artists were using, which I liked very much and imitated it. The artists that have influenced my work the most are Ed Fairburn. I chose to explore this artist because I liked his style. He mainly draw people's faces on the map. From his artwork I am interested in art style which a person's face seems to be attached to something else. Because I thought these artwork makes people's interest. All of my artworks connect because I mainly like to draw people, so many of my drawings are about people's faces.
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Leni Hinrichs Le Cerf
During my pre-IB art study, I had the opportunity to work with a variety of artists and topics. It aided my development as a young artist by allowing me to express myself via numerous mediums, concepts, and subjects through the many projects we were assigned during the course. How do I want my audience to experience my art? I want people to be able to break down my art into visual bits and see what they see in the shapes, colours and textures I've used. I'd like them to analyse how the components complement the concealed message by looking at what they're seeing objectively. I want to provide the general public a better understanding of topics like mental health in today's culture so that they may have a more positive outlook on the issue of individuals suppressing their mental health to fit in with today's standards. Art aids in the delivery of this message because 76
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it pushes the spectator to think more deeply about what they see in front of them beyond just the big picture, which is precisely how I want them to approach difficulties in their everyday lives. I want to use my work to represent not just how I personally feel about this issue, but also to help others understand them from the perspective of someone who has first-hand experience it to allow for a more represented
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Liya Manenkova Clairmont
In my artworks, I focus on making them detailed and technical, but also unique and emotional. This academic year, I experimented with different media and my favourite ones are oil paints and collages. My paintings are usually bigscale and it is mainly portraits, and I develop such themes as mental health, abuse, spirituality and relationships. In my artworks right now, I try to improve my technique and make them more realistic, but I also enjoy discovering new themes and experimenting with more types of media.
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Lou Belissent Exeter
Throughout this year, I have been able to grow immensely in my art as I explored different media and researched many artists. I particularly loved Henri Matisse's “La Raie Verte” as it was a new and interesting way to discover portraiture as it portrayed Madame Matisse in an unfamiliar way with a sharp green line, creating contrast and an interesting composition in a peculiar way. I furthermore recreated a portrait in this style of my brother in acrylic paint using bold colours to contrast against each other. While using acrylic, I was able to layer paint, building the portrait up instead of blending in colours. This year, I have been especially keen on exploring portraiture in different media. Apart from my Henri Matisse response I created a portrait illustrating my mother and I in oil paint. The composition of this piece was very personal and significant to me since it combined both of our faces together, showing 84
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the resemblance and conveying a theme of family, resemblance, and legacy. In my work, I hope that the audience can connect with the people in the portraits and relate with them. WIth their emotions, expressions, and ways of being. All of my works are based on things that I love so I hope that the audience can connect this with their own personal experiences and make their own connections.
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Mia Gentzbourger Clairmont
During my GCSE art course, I was able to explore and experiment with many different artists and styles. In year 10, I was able to trial different media within my artworks like clay, etchings, mono-prints and the more basic media like gouache and ink. Furthermore, in Year 11, we were able to have more freedom in media but expressed focus on specific themes like apart and/or together and the theme of reflection. Many of my pieces throughout year 10 were inspired by artists like Giorgio Morandi and Aykut Aydogdu. In fact, one of my favourite pieces created was inspired by an artist named Patrick Caulfeild. Caulfield's paintings were mainly characterised by flat objects of the same colour, creating a pop art sense of style. I was able to create an artwork that integrated Caulfields style using acrylic paint. The flat colours in the background cause attention to be shone 88
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on the more detailed pitcher. Additionally, for my final 10 hour mock exam, I was able to create a clay pot inspired by a koi fish pond. Some of the details within the pot included water tides, lily pads and several koi fishes. For year 11, I would initially develop my ideas for each theme using mind maps entitled “Apart and Together”, “Reflection” and “Museum Of Fine Arts Bern”. From there, I would choose topics and artists that interested me the most in these mind maps. For our theme of “Apart and Together” the ideas I gravitated towards the most were both people and objects. I did some artists studies on people like Edward Hopper and his style of basic settings with melancholic reflections. I also did another study on Gustav Klimpt, trying to capture the essence of his bold and bright patterns along with acrobatic-like positionings. One of my most refined pieces in this project was one conveying a human and nature connection. For our mock exam based on this theme, I decided to create a surrealist piece in which I 89
collided two worlds together- a dystopia and a safe haven. For our next project, we would proceed onto the theme of reflection. I seemed to have veered towards the reflection of identity, objects, and history. These ideas give both a physical and more thought through aspect of this theme. Some artists I have looked through are Katharine Morling and Norman Rockwell. I have created one piece, a bird cage made of clay and a series of pictures reflecting typical scenes you would see in American culture- football games and first dates. I was also able to take inspiration from our art trip to Bern to further my developing ideas.
Miguel Granados Martinez Gama St Louis
I feel that art is somewhat complicated because anyone can interpret any artwork as they want and can have different opinions and interpretations of their own. So if a random individual looks at my artwork they might think it is connected to all of my pieces, but in reality my artwork is something that anyone can enjoy and is not at all connected in any way. In fact I feel like in year 11 the most important thing I learned is that art is something very important in life as you are always witnessing different forms of art, for example, Lionel Messi is the best example of art that exists in this world. The artists that have impacted my work the most are, the already mentioned, Lionel Messi and Cristiano “El Bicho” Ronaldo. I like them because they inspired me to be a better person and Messi’s smooth movements inspired the way I gently stroke the paintbrush on the canvas. One other artist that has 92
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influenced my decisions to make art is Diego Rivera, he has made me realise that my culture is under-appreciated in the current society. Most of the artists we have looked at this year are Europeans which is good, but it also makes me feel that my country and culture is not talked about as much as it should be. The different media I have chosen this year are acrylic paint, coloured pencils, and photography. I especially liked photography because in that case I do not have to portray my art skills and it is an easier but more expressive way to show the public the way I express my feelings through the work I produce in this class.
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Natalia Amike Exeter
During my year 11 art course I was given the opportunity to explore a variety of artists and their particular styles. Doing this has allowed me to better understand myself and my preferred interests when it comes to art. Now that I have followed a diverse curriculum based on portraits, artist studies, reflection, food paintings, still life, and photography, I can say that it is modern society’s reflection expressed through photography that I find myself to be interested in the most. Recently, we were introduced to this year’s exam topic: reflection, for which we had to make a mind map of ideas. In this mind map, I explored a variety of sources that could be linked to reflection and was almost convinced that my final outcome would be something related to mental health as I find very much interest in mental health and find it very important to prioritise it. 96
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However, when looking for an artist to base my second artist study on, I found David Yarrow, who’s a British fine-art photographer, and was able to make a link between his contemporary photography and reflection. I found his photography to be a reflection of modern society’s invasion in nature, and vice versa. Now that I have found to be inspired by this, I will try to relate it to my final outcome because I find it very important to give society a ‘heads up’ on the importance of nature, and open society’s eyes to the reality that humans have started to take nature for granted by abusing it with technology, climate change etc… and I believe that through art I can promote this awareness. Furthermore, I strongly stand by the idea that visual arts speak for themselves, and manage to make society sympathise with their intended message. Which is what I ultimately want to achieve: an ‘opening of eyes’ to the lack of importance modern society’s places on nature and general well-being, by creating an art-piece based on a series of photos that emphasise that main idea. 97
Sofia Davy Exeter
During my Pre-IB art study, I was able to refine my artistic approach and experiment with new techniques and concepts. Throughout the course, I've looked at a variety of artists and their styles. Claude Monet and Paul Cezzane were two painters that especially influenced me. They both utilise paint as their media and integrate texture to make their works more complicated. Both of them are interested in the natural world. I created a response for both artists, and it taught me a lot about impressionism and the importance of not using excessive detail. I've mostly used paint as my medium during this art course, and I've become more comfortable with it. I've primarily worked with nature, and I've discovered that painting is one of my favourite methods to express nature. When people look at my work, I want them to see that nature isn't flawless, and I try to 100
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convey that in my work by using a variety of techniques to create texture and working in an impressionist manner. Nothing in nature is exactly the same and looks the same, and I make it a point to portray that in my work. Along with nature, I've done some portrait work, and I've used the impressionist method in the process. I made a deformed face for my mock exam project. I wanted my viewers to be able to see the actual facial characteristics, but they weren't in the right spot. The concept is that no one is flawless, and that even the oddest-looking people are beautiful, and that in today's society, we must learn to accept others flaws and treat everyone equally, regardless of appearance. It was also intended to go against today's beauty standards.
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Natalia Kalach Hans Le Cerf
During my PRE-IB Art course at Aiglon I developed a variety of new skills. We have explored the themes of Still Life, Portraits, and Reflection where we practised different techniques and painting styles to create our own art piece. All of these themes helped me explore how art is related to our everyday lives and how society expresses themselves through art. Personally, I work better with oil paint and I learned how to correctly use it over time. I have practised a lot with oil paint, I started towards the end of the first term when we did our mocks. I hadn’t done much portraits or oil paint but when I tried I knew it was going to work for me. Some famous artists like Brandon Lillibridge inspired me to paint and I used their ideas and techniques to create an art piece of my own. Art class pushes me to try something new and to experiment with new ideas and materials. At 104
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first I was really comfortable with pencil drawings and acrylics, but I learned to try oil paint, pens, markers, watercolours, etc. I am very proud of my mock exam outcome, my blue pencil sketch, and my oil portrait artist response.
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Nela Brack Clairmont
The Pre-IB art course is a gentle introduction to art, but also the opportunity to experiment and deepen our skills and understanding of how paintings influence our thoughts. In the beginning of the year we focused on doing quick sketches in different media and trying to find what we feel most comfortable with. It was also the first time for me where I had to make artist studies and interpretations of paintings, including annotating my own art. During the autumn term we started focusing more on portraits, as this was the topic for our upcoming mock exam. I decided to take Roy Lichtenstein as my inspiration, however I ended up only taking the reference photo in his style and then paint it as realistic as possible with blue watercolour. After the completion of this piece we started working towards our real exams in the summer with the topic “reflection”. We started off by creating a mind map with all kind of ideas that are somehow relatable to the theme. Over the next weeks 108
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I made various paintings in different media and different styles as well as analysing more artists. Slowly we started to have ideas about what to do for the exam and developed these further. My most frequently used media is watercolour and I think this is because I like realistic paintings and watercolours are convenient for slow and accurate working. Thanks to my art book I realised that I am confident at copying paintings, however I am not experienced at adding my own character to my work, therefore I started to focus more on what I want to express through my art during winter term. I realised that my art is heavily influenced by my mood and especially the people I am surrounded by and my goal is to create something that makes us feel an emotion, preferably a happy one.
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Mirei "Nicole" Jo Le Cerf
During my IGCSE art course, I was able to experience and explore many different artists and their artwork. The themes and ideas that I have explored in my work so far are metals and sculpting structures with thin strands of metal. In year 10 I looked at painting whilst in year 11 I chose to look at pencil portraits and now metal sculptures. The different media I have worked with are painting, drawing, sculpting, and clay. I especially enjoyed drawing and sculpting. The reason why I like drawing and sculpting is that I liked how the pencil shades blended with each other. I like sculpting because I like how you can imitate anything using any objects. I was mostly inspired by John Lopez and the way he works with metal. He imitates the structure with metal very well and makes chains look like hair. This artwork connects with reflection because it reflects on reusing and recycling metals rather than throwing them away. For this artist, I am trying to imitate his artwork but with thin strips of 112
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metal instead of using big pieces of metal. Right now, I am making an elephant head sculpture that I sculpted with paper first and wrapped metal around to make the process easier.
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Yuqing "Vicky" Jin Le Cerf
During year 11 I explored many different medias and artists which inspired me. I especially liked the artist Loribelle Spirovski, I did my mock based on her style. The reason why I like her style is the colours that she used, it is messy but harmonious. I changed a lot of things from her style for my mock, but I kept the most obvious feature which is half realistic and half abstract. My oil painting skills have also improved a lot, I used to use normal paint instead of oil paint before, but for this year I have tried oil paint and I can paint with it comfortably.
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Monroe Maercks Alpina
All my artwork connects because the aesthetic is all the same. With all the same meaning. It’s a demonstration of your feelings. It’s a way of expression and therapy. The different media I have worked with are painting, oil painting, and wires. I especially liked wires. The reason why I like wires is because it was very different from all the other art. The artists that have influenced my work the most are Michelangelo who chose to explore this artist because I liked his story and his artwork. In all of my work I am trying to achieve success. I want to try to improve my painting skills so I can create better paintings and be better at art. I always 120
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loved making art while listening to music to capture the mood and the mood that I currently am in. Whatever comes to mind I use my thoughts to help me create what I want to create. The theme I would say of my art is simple but complicated. From my perspective most art is themed either happy or sad but in the future I think I would like to go further into sadder and more realistic art.
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