THE HYMERS HART Winter: Edition 2
2024
TEACHER FEATURE WITH MISS ROBINSON IN ART
What do you love about being an Who is your favourite artist? So many! However, I have been a true Art teacher? I enjoy being in a creative environment and introducing students to new artists, materials and processes. I also love to take my own inspiration from visiting galleries or discovering new artists, back to the classroom to create new projects. Above all, to see a student enjoy projects and make progress is a real pleasure.
If you could teach any other subject, what would it be? Alongside Art, I taught English as a second language a few years back while living abroad. It was fun and rewarding to have conversations with students and listen to them develop their language skills. Sometimes it could be quite funny to learn the differences between their first language and English, comparing traditional sayings and finding similarities between the two.
What is your favourite art style? Again, this changes all the time depending on what I am being influenced by. Actually, I have a love of fine art photography, mixed media and printing.
fan of artists Christo and JeanneClaude (a duo) for many years. Their work is incredible. They wrap entire buildings, islands even. Doing this helps accentuate the structures’ form and scale. The work is like no other, it pushes boundaries and is playful, powerful and engaging. His inspiration came from escaping Bulgaria in the late 1950s when the revolution began. He tucked himself away, hiding in trains as if almost wrapping himself up and disguising himself. These moments inspired his artwork. To go from hiding himself and his belongings to wrapping buildings such as L'Arc de Triomphe and the Reichstag is amazing.
Who do you think is one of the most underappreciated artists of our time? Cy Twombly was an incredibly famous artist, yet few people I have spoken to have heard of him. Perhaps he is more well known in America. I first encountered his work at Tate Modern in London around sixteen years ago. I was immediately stunned and in awe of the scale and incredibly expressive and beautiful colours in his works. To be among his works in person was a wonderful experience.
Miss Robinson and her dog, Simba. Photo reproduced with permission
What is your favourite piece of art and why? That's hard to answer, it changes with your mood, circumtances, season even. Right now, I am thinking about Turner's ‘The Fighting Temeraire’. I adore Turner's use of vibrant, rich and expressive colour, the movement he creates and the overall light and luminosity of the painting. More recently however, I enjoyed discovering the work of Bernard Fleetwood Walker. His portraits are incredibly realistic, composed as if painted in the late 19th century, yet the subjects look as if they are from the 1930s and 40s, both with their with fashion and Walker’s use of modern day colour, tone and more simplified shapes. ‘Amity’ (1933) is a good example. By: Freddie S and Desiree T in Year 8