Nailing our Colours to the Mast

The Senior School Art Department were delighted to celebrate the achievements of their exam candidates with the welcome return of their end-of-year exhibitions after a threeyear hiatus due to COVID.

Pupils, parents, friends, family and staff packed the studios to view the impressive work of the 52 GCSE pupils, much of which was inspired by their trip to St Ives. The A Level exhibition, which is always the highlight in the Art Department calendar, represents the culmination of the students’ artistic journey at King’s, which, for most, stretches as far back as Fourth Form Art lessons.

The students are encouraged to be ambitious and independent, and the work produced often exceeds the usual standard achieved at this level; indeed, a lot of the work on show this year would not look out of place in an art foundation or degree show.

Our artists follow their own areas of interest and consequently the work was wide-ranging and eclectic and included ambitious oil painting, textile prints, ceramics, sculpture, photography and film, exploring themes as diverse as brutalist architecture, the depiction of the female in classical sculpture, the movement of the figure and Portuguese pattern. We are very proud of their achievements and particular congratulations go to Alice B, who was awarded the academic prize in Art,

Catherine C, who won the Georgina Terry Art Prize, and

Keely J and Gabby S, who both received the peoples’ choice awards. We wish all the students the best of luck and look forward to hearing about the progress of those that have gone to study Fine Art, Architecture, Interior

Design and Prop Design. An online virtual exhibition of the A Level work will be launched at the end of the year, so look out for this on the school website.