Art and Design (Fine Art)

Course summary

We offer a broad range of skills in the Art Department at A Level, from oil painting to animation, photography to film-making. Some of these might be familiar from GCSE, but at A Level you can explore and extend these skills in greater depth. We set challenging projects and expect students to respond with equally demanding outcomes. The creative process which takes place can be fulfilling and, while the workload demands time and commitment, there is a self-motivating and self-perpetuating ethos which gives rise to a questioning and critically-aware student by the end of the two years. Art & Design can be happily combined with and complements many subjects such as Art History, Design & Technology or Drama & Theatre Studies; it is an accredited A Level qualification and is accepted by universities, although some combinations of subjects are not suitable for certain courses at university. You may want to study for a career in one of the visual art and design disciplines; an Art Foundation Course is the essential platform for this. It will also give you a creative balance in your curriculum alongside other subjects. Many former South Hampstead students who studied Art at A Level are now working as painters, sculptors, film directors, graphic designers, architects, illustrators, photographers, fashion and textile designers and senior curators in major art galleries.