Art and Design (Fine Art)

Course summary

Art is a broad course and an excellent option to take alongside more traditional subjects. It develops your creativity, visual analysis, thinking, problem-solving, hand/ eye coordination and art historical knowledge. Britain produces some of the best architects, designers and artists in the world and almost all have studied art at school. The course will appeal to students who wish to retain a creative element to their study, those wishing to study art for further education, as well as those who will be following conventional academic degrees post-A level. You will develop your drawing, painting and three-dimensional (sculpture) skills as well as working in the darkroom (for photography) and develop more sophisticated printmaking techniques (intaglio acid etching). You will also follow a History of Art Unit. The department arranges one residential art trip over the two years, either to Margate or St Ives in Cornwall; these take place at the end of the Spring Term at the beginning of the Easter holidays. The Cornish trip focuses on drawing and painting from the landscape. While there you will work with artists and visit Tate St Ives and Barbara Hepworth’s studio. The trip culminates in an open-air printmaking workshop run by a print specialist. The Margate trip is a shorter residential trip which focuses on a visit to the Turner Contemporary Gallery, Shell Grotto, and sketching in the locality. We run regular art master-class sessions for the sixth form which include life drawing classes. Your course will begin with an introduction to a variety of skills and techniques which you will be taught by three different teachers. The skills you will learn include oil painting, watercolour, dark room techniques, printmaking and sculptural casting. You will also follow a History of Art component throughout the term which will introduce you to works from Ancient Egypt and Greece through to the modern period. During the Autumn term, you will begin Component 1, which comprises a thematic enquiry in which you will develop a range of experiments and research culminating in a final piece made during a fifteen-hour exam in May. Following the summer exam, you will be introduced to the Articulation speaking prize and begin research on a dissertation of 2000 to 3000 words or other agreed form with a minimum of 1000 words. You will also begin work on a second thematic enquiry, which also forms part of Component 1, which will culminate in a fifteen-hour mock exam in December of your second year of study. All the work for Component 1 is worth 60% of the final A Level grade.