Year 8 have been working ever so hard on their self-portraits. They have taken inspiration from Bruno Del Zou, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, George Braque, Brianna McCarthy, Aubrey Beardsley and many more. Some students found their own artist to inspire their final outcomes. I am blown away with their hard work and resilience towards this project. 

Mrs Mitchell

Lead Teacher for Art, Design and Photography

I was extremely proud to recently attend UCLAN’s Saturday Art Club exhibition. Two of our talented students, Izzy and Olivia in Year 9, had work on display as part of the exhibition. The club offers creative workshops exploring various art, design, fashion and textiles processes. The Club is exclusively for teenagers aged 13 to 16. You can find out more about this here. https://www.uclan.ac.uk/events/saturday-club

Mrs Mitchell

Lead Teacher for Art, Design and Photography

Year 7 have been working very hard on their toy compositions inspired by Michael Craig and Martina and Sarah Graham – a lovely use of colour and overlapping the objects to create an inspiring composition.

Year 8 are working towards their self portrait final piece. They have been experimenting with a range of media inspired by Van Gogh, Picasso and Braque. They will then go on to find their own artist who inspires them. I will show you the finished pieces next time…

Year 9 have been learning how to draw using one and two-point perspective in preparation for drawing the school building. This is a really challenging concept to grasp but they are doing really well.

Year 10 have been experimenting with Cyanotype. Cyanotype is a 170 year old photographic printing process that produces prints in a distinctive dark greenish-blue. The word cyan comes from the Greek, meaning “dark blue substance.” The botanist, Anna Atkins, used the cyanotype printing process in 1843 to create an album of algae specimens. She created the images by placing objects directly on photosensitive paper; this process is called a photogram (unless you are Man Ray, in which case you call it a rayograph). She is regarded as the first female photographer.

Year 10 have also been working on their edits of fruit inspired by the work of Dennis Wojtkiewicz. They have printed their work on silk under the heat press and have some fabulous results.

Year 11 have been working hard on their externally set assignment over the last few weeks. They have used Photoshop to create these surreal and thought-provoking compositions of ‘Spaces and Places’.

Mrs Mitchell

Head of Art and Photography

Hello, my name is Mrs Mitchell and I am Head of Art and Photography and second in Faculty here at PGHS. I am currently in my 18th year of teaching and feel very excited about working with the highly motivated and creative students Penwortham Girls’ High School.

Over the last few days, I have been blown away by the standard of artwork being produced here. I have selected a few examples to show you.

Year 10 Photography have been working towards the theme ‘Natural Forms’. They have produced these beautiful kaleidoscope images in Photoshop.

Year 9 have been working hard to complete their mixed media animal eyes. These are just beautiful! Well done, Year 9. Keep up the good work!

Year 7 are currently working hard on their toy composition which is inspired by childhood memories. I am really looking forward to seeing these painted next week.

This term , the Art and Design department are very proud of our Year 10 students who have made an excellent start on their GCSE coursework.

Most recently we have been doing a series of workshops. Each workshop has given the students the opportunity to experiment and trial new techniques and processes. These have been combined to allow a ‘mixed-media’ effect and the students have enjoyed exploring and taking risks. Processes have included wax batik, resist media, hand-embroidery and machine-embroidery embellishments. Some of the results far exceed expectation at this point in the course and our students should be very proud of their achievements! 

Mrs Gerrard

Art & Design

In Art lessons, Year 7 have been producing some fantastic responses to recent work based on the 7 Elements of Art. They have studied the visual elements of Colour, Line, Tone, Texture, Form, Shape and Space. These elements underpin the basics for all art and design. It has been fabulous to see Year 7 Art students already developing the skills to recognise these and they are beginning to use them confidently in their work. Their recent task has included drawing a set of reflective glass marbles, concentrating on refining their pencil skills in basic shape, form and tonal blending. They have also studied the application of colour blending with skills being developed in creating smooth colour gradients with pencil crayons. The Art Department are very proud of the results! We have some exciting talent emerging, which we are sure you will agree from these photos of student’s work.

Mrs Gerrard

Art Department

Within KS4 Art and Design, those students studying for their GCSE have really impressed us with their summer work. Students have undertaken research tasks in Year 10 and have made an excellent effort to kick-start their GCSE coursework. Work has included some fantastic artist research pages and some very impressive title pages alongside good examples of drawing.

Year 11 students have shown incredible commitment to their ongoing coursework as they are now immersed in their major project for submission next Spring. Over the summer they have completed some absolutely fantastic drawings in pencil, some of which have clearly taken hours and hours. We are very proud of the resilience and ambition shown in our Art students producing such detailed and time-consuming drawings.

We are looking forward to another year of amazing coursework being produced as our current Art students, and new Art students in Year 10, continue their fantastic commitment to the subject.

Mrs Gerrard

Teacher of Art and Design

 

Below, you can view a small sample of some of the summer homework that was produced independently. We are sure that you will agree it is very impressive!

I have just completed my second placement here at PGHS in the Art department. I have had a wonderful experience and I’ve loved getting to know the students and staff. With my year 7 classes, we have embarked on a toy project inspired by the work of Michael Craig Martin with some brilliant outcomes. We have since moved on to creating some coral pods out of clay inspired by our trip to the aquarium; the students have got some really interesting textures and beautifully crafted pieces. With my year 8 class, we have worked on painting final pieces for their portraiture project, with students showing some fantastic end results. We have just begun a cells textiles project and the students are already showing promising results. In my year 9 classes, we completed our animal eye project using a wide range of media with the students showing real skill and bravery by experimenting with new media. They have since begun work on a graffiti and street art topic with some lively debates about the place for graffiti and street art in our society. My year 10 class has finished off their natural forms project with some wonderful final pieces inspired by the work of Laly Mille. They have since moved on to their extended project and the group have made a really promising start. With our year 11 group, I was lucky enough to be able to support them in the lead-up to their exams and the results from the exam were really exciting to look at. Well done, girls!

Thank you so much to all the students and staff for making me feel so welcome in the school. A special thank you to the Art and Technology department for all your help and support!

Here are some lovely examples of KS3 students’ work.

Miss Williams

Student Teacher

Year 11 Photographers have concluded their Compent 2 Exams this term.  Preparing since January 2023, they have worked exceptionally hard and have made a fantastic effort in their 10 hour practical assignment. Here are some of their outcomes.  All student portfolios can be seen live through our Art & Photography website:  https://gmorris85penworthamgirls.weebly.com/

Miss Morris

Lead Teacher of Art and Photography