Summer Art Show 2020 Exeter School
Art Department 2019 - 2020 The Art Department at Exeter School has had a characteristically busy and productive year. One of the annual highlights is always The Big Draw; in Autumn 2019, pupils from across the Junior and Senior School were challenged to create a ‘Tree of Wellbeing’ from illustrated handprints and footprints. The vibrant outcome has now been installed in Room 3 on Lower Corridor and the installation forms part of the ever-growing ‘Big Draw Trail’ across the school site.
A variety of off-site visits have provided creative stimulus this year; Upper Fifth Form pupils were inspired by a series of gallery visits and practical workshops in St Ives, whilst Lower Sixth Form pupils visited the independent shops in Magdalen Road to undertake first-hand photography and observational drawing as a starting point for their ‘Consumerism’ coursework projects. A Sixth Form trip to Bristol in the Autumn term provided much inspiration with visits to the Arnolfini, The Royal West of England Academy and the City Museum and Art Gallery.
The Art Department continues to work in collaboration with other departments and this year there have been a number of successful partnerships. In the Autumn term, Lower Fifth Form pupils produced striking lino prints inspired by Company, which were displayed during the production week for the audience to enjoy on arrival. In November 2019, Middle Fifth Form artists visited the School Archive to gain inspiration for the annual Alumni Office Card Competition and the standard of the submissions was very high. Lower School Art Club have been productive throughout the year, designing the school’s Christmas card, as well as posters to advertise the ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition in the Spring term.
For the first time, Third Form pupils were engaged in a collaborative Art activity during their Pixies Holt residential weekends, producing mixedmedia canvases which reflected their experience of Dartmoor. Their textured outcomes were hung in their form rooms on return to school.
The Senior Art Gallery has hosted a number of successful and well-attended exhibitions this year, including the Staff Art Show in December 2019 and the inaugural Alumni Architecture Exhibition in January 2020, which showcased a range of impressive architectural work from undergraduate projects to examples of professional practice. Visitors were impressed by the quality and concept of the work on display at the annual Lower Sixth Form Exhibition in February 2020.
Summer term plans were understandably interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, but pupils in the Senior School continued to make excellent progress with their practical studies away from the studios. Lower Fifth Form created digital self-portraits using the Sketchbook app on their iPads, whilst a school-wide photographic competition encouraged pupils and staff to recreate great works of art using household items, family members and pets! Upper Fifth Form pupils opting to study Art in the Sixth Form undertook a Pre-A Level Art course creating ‘Lockdown Drawing Diaries’. This end-of-year catalogue highlights the wealth of work produced by Senior School pupils in just one academic year. We are very proud of the ambitious nature of the work, the high standard of execution and the diverse contextual references. Alison Escott Head of Art
Third Form Pupils have produced mixed-media assemblages based on twentieth century artists, as well as vibrant paintings to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics, inspired by the work of Michael Craig-Martin.
George Gillingham
Benji Cooling
Esme Hobbs
Ella Church
Tahlia Hill
Will Hamilton
Lucas Randall
Tom Byrne
Will Renshaw
Alex Leaver
Emma Barton
Lucy Anderton Tom Lambert
Rory Clarke
Rosie Batchelor
Tess Hughes
Delilah Evans
Ella Church
Caspar Collins
Fourth Form Pupils have produced graphic compositions inspired by Dominic McGill, commemorating Mr Griffin’s 17 years at Exeter School, as well as textured press-prints based on ordnance survey maps.
Kirsty Scott
Luke Tait
Oliver Gray
Beth Tilley
Francesca Jenner
Nate James
Toby Capps
Angelica Fitt
Freddie Cockram
Lydia Brookes-Ferrari
Alex Barry
William Alder
Tudor Badescu
William Markham
Oliver Gribble
Angus Isaac
Jasmine Hardy
Sophie Brennan
Elle Golsworthy
Jess Cockayne
Rosie Burrage
Lower Fifth Form Pupils have undertaken a range of practical work on the theme of portraiture, including carefully rendered tonal self-portraits and tinted etchings inspired by Hannah Hรถch.
Elizabeth Doherty
Oscar Clements
Lauren Brown
Frank Burke
Reuben Griffith
Jamie Cresswell
Sarah Knapp
Jacques Barker
Beau Gillingham
Aimee Dearness
Tom Irons
Isabelle Cortizo
Seb Johns
Albert Hughes
Rupert Hughes
Betsy Hale
Will Dean
Roxane Bosch
Middle Fifth Form This year, as part of their GCSE coursework, pupils have explored the theme of ‘Collections’ by studying a wide range of related artists and techniques. This has included carefully rendered acrylic paintings of workshop tools and large scale mixed-media drawings of suspended instruments in response to the installation work by artist Cornelia Parker.
Oliver Capps
Lila Burnett-Hitchcock
Faye Chapman
Riley-Blue Griffith
Talia Rothwell
Aris Chauhan-Barker
Izzy Trelawny
Isaac Otter
Molly Blanchard
Annabel Burton
Amelia Simpson
Beth Rayner
Iris Mason
Millie Markham
Jodie Blackmore
Rosie Hobbs
Hannah Lambert
Iona Watson
Oliwia Czaja
William Lyons
Upper Fifth Form The work displayed here was GCSE examination in response themes: ‘Concealment’, ‘Paper’,
produced in the ten-hour to one of the following ‘Crowds’ or ‘Expression’.
Harmony Evans
Theo Power
Kitty Wenss
Tilly Hale
Roxy Burrage
Jessica Billingham
Isla McIntosh
Maddie Keliher
Emily Crighton
Daisy Purchall
George Brennan
Ruby Parker
Isabel Williams
Martha Bell
Livia Singer
Olalla Cadevila-Preston
Lower Sixth Form The work displayed here was produced in the eight-hour internal examination in response to one of the following themes: ‘Movement’, ‘or ‘Views from above or below’.
Sorrel Mitchell
Harriet Brimacombe
Eva Casey
Francesca Giannachi-Kaye
Evie Oldland
Upper Sixth Form
In the Upper Sixth Form, pupils pursue independent lines of enquiry as part of their coursework. The personal outcomes are the results of detailed investigation and experimentation and their work is supported by 3000word critical investigations into relevant cultural and art historical sources.
Olive Harper
Isabelle Bland
Isabelle Bland
Tess Gebbie
This year, the pupils have explored a range of themes for their coursework projects, including ‘Food’, ‘Clothing’, ‘The Human Condition’ and ‘Abandoned Spaces’. The responses produced during the fifteen-hour examination were in response to the following themes: ‘Surfaces’ or ‘Assembled’.
Olive Harper
Tess Gebbie
Chiara Luxmoore
Chiara Luxmoore
Lower Sixth Form - Consumerism Exhibition The Art Department hosted a Private View for the annual exhibition of Lower Sixth Form artwork on Thursday 27 February which showcased the body of work the pupils had produced on the theme ‘Consumerism’. The pupils explored a wide range of themes in the development of their independent lines of enquiry, including obesity, packaging and the impact of social media advertising on impressionable young girls. As part of their Lower Sixth Art course, the pupils selected the work for the exhibition and wrote their own artists statements to accompany the work on display.
Harriet Brimacombe
Isobel Tremlett
Francesca Giannachi-Kaye
Sorrel Mitchell
Hebe McCance
Eva Casey
Evie Oldland
Alumni Card Competition In the Autumn term, the Alumni Office invited Middle Fifth Form artists to submit a new design for their notelet card inspired by their visit to the School Archive. The final submissions were informed by Lisa Milroy’s orderly paintings and the large collection of school memorabilia they observed from uniforms, to military badges, to photographs of previous Headmasters. The submissions were thoughtfully composed and carefully executed.
Rosie Hobbs
Beth Rayner Oliver Capps
Molly Blanchard
Hannah Lambert Faye Chapman
St Ives Exhibition Following the residential weekend in St Ives, Upper Fifth Form pupils produced a series of outcomes in response to their visit, which included collagraph prints, charcoal drawings and embellished clay sculptures. The work was displayed in the Gallery in January 2020 for the wider school community to enjoy.
The Big Draw 2019 The theme for this year’s Big Draw event was ‘Drawn to Life’, promoting the connection between wellbeing and creativity. The Art Department interpreted this by inviting pupils and staff from both the Junior and Senior School to decorate their handprint or footprint with bold illustrations of things that make them happy. This resulted in an impressive ‘Tree of Wellbeing’ which has since been installed in Room 3 on Lower Corridor.
3rd Form Collaborative Work In the Spring term, Third Form classes created collaborative sculptures celebrating the Tokyo Olympics. Their designs were influenced by the movement portrayed in Cyril Power’s linoprints and the cardboard constructions were painted in vivid acrylic colours.
Alumni Architecture Exhibition The inaugural Alumni Architecture Exhibition at Exeter School took place on Friday 31 January in the Senior School Art Gallery. The event was well-attended by pupils, parents and staff and celebrated the creative and innovative work of 13 past pupils in the field of Architecture spanning the last 43 years. It encompassed both professional practice and undergraduate projects and highlighted a variety of specialisms, including conservation, listed buildings, infrastructure and residential design.
Alumnus Robert Burrows (1995 – 2006) from Hawkins\Brown delivered a fascinating careers presentation as part of the evening. He gave an insightful talk into his journey from Exeter School to his current professional practice in London and the challenges and rewards along the way. The impressive and wide-ranging display undoubtedly inspired the current generation of pupils at Exeter School and broadened the horizons of all those interested in pursuing a career in Architecture.
Sixth Form Life Drawing Between November 2019 and February 2020, the Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth Form pupils undertook after school Life Drawing classes run by the Art Department. The studies ranged from quick, gestural depictions of the human form to carefully rendered tonal studies of cropped sections. The pupils’ practical work was influenced by artists such as Nicky Basford, Bill Brandt and Antony Gormley.
Lower Fifth Form - Digital Portraits As part of the ‘Portraiture’ scheme of work, Lower Fifth Form pupils used the Sketchbook app on their iPads to create digital portraits inspired by the photomontage artist Hannah Höch. Pupils combined their self-portraits with secondary source material to create surreal compositions.
Archie Eden
Elizabeth Doherty
Dex Evans
Oscar Clements
Jacques Barker
Sarah Knapp
Reuben Griffith
Charlie Gordon-Lennox
Rupert Hughes
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