Art

Fête de Noël

Art, French, Music and Theatre joined forces again for this year’s Fête de Noël, which transported us to the summer sun of the Normandy coastline. It was a chance to celebrate not only the famous chalk cliffs of Etretat (paper and chicken wire) and the beaches of Trouville and Cabourg (corrugated cardboard), but also the bicentenary of the birth of French poet Charles Baudelaire (whose albatross made an appearance) and novelist Gustave Flaubert (his parrot was there too!) as well as other literary, musical and artistic greats from La Belle France, who had links with Normandy. Against the extraordinary backdrop of the set, created in Concert Hall by Helen Pinkney and the Fête team, we heard readings and live music from some of our talented linguists and musicians. The smells of warm cider and ‘frites’ were welcome additions to the sounds and sights of this rather off-the-wall, ‘one night only’ event that has become one of those unique and much-anticipated Charterhouse institutions.

Miss Emily Fox, Mr Peter Monkman & Miss Helen Pinkney

Aadya Seksaria (C)

The Importance of ‘Life Drawing’ at Charterhouse

Life Drawing is a strong force in Studio with Art students attending regular classes which occur twice a week. This feeds into their A Level and IB Diploma coursework and adds to their portfolios when applying to do Art, Design or Architecture for further study.

I think that, in the world of art, drawing from life is a very important skill to learn and keep as it makes you think about the individual you want to draw through simplified shapes within a space. When drawing from a model, a mutual respect is created between the artist and the sitter, which allows you to focus and learn the anatomy of the human form and express it in your own way.

Learning these skill makes it easier to draw more defined shapes and create more elaborate compositions in future works.

Over the years, drawing from the human form has allowed students from Charterhouse to learn to observe with the acquired knowledge and skills that it commands.

Stan Valev (H)

Towers

They began with the subject of ‘Towers’, researching the title in its broadest sense. They looked at scale, balance, gravity, form, and surface, studying a range of sculptors and architects. A wide variety of working methods and techniques were demonstrated. The exciting thing about teaching art is that, from a singular starting point, all the pupils’ work and thinking is unique. There was no right way to approach this project, except to encourage risk taking and working outside of the pupils’ comfort zone. It was refreshing to be back in Studio since lockdown seeing the pupils working on large scale, ambitious physical work. The show they exhibited in the Studio gallery was both personal and communal. It was held together by some of the key principles of the project, but the diversity of the show was more than I had anticipated. Maria Dzhioeva’s (F) brightly coloured work went beyond the project’s requirements and reflected her own culture very strongly. Binmo Chen (Su) was equally inspired by her own aesthetic and culture, producing a delicate drawing in wire, relating to fisherman and nets. Eddie Chai (R) was inspired by his interest in architecture and connections to his study of design and love of drawing. This exhibition reinforced the individuality of expression that we are all capable of, and how necessary any means of creative expression is, for our well-being and confidence. I would like to congratulate all the First Year artists on embracing the theme and not being afraid to express themselves.

Miss Helen Pinkney

Eddie Chai (R)

Binmo Chen (Su)

Fifths inspire Wisley Gardeners

The Fifth Form artists spent a day this Quarter at RHS Wisley. The idea behind the day was to expose pupils to real life observations, get them out of the Studio and hopefully persuade them to look at an actual tree rather than a googled image of a tree. The bane of the Art teacher is the googled image: “I know what a tree looks like, Miss Pinkney, I don’t need to look at one, I have printed one out.” Yes, well perhaps you know what a photo of that tree looks like, but a tree has to be experienced.

We briefed the group on differing viewpoints, the broader landscape and environment as well as the macro image. They drew from life, with me shouting instructions at them while the public looked on at their impressive approach. The Wisley gardeners commented on what a polite and intelligent group they were. One gardener remarked on the interest of the boys in what he was doing. I was impressed, perhaps a little surprised – Carthusians never cease to surprise and amaze me! We had moved from the google image to chatting with gardeners about real plants. It was a very good day, different to a gallery visit. We will do more to encourage trips like this, to collect observations, and hopefully encourage an attachment to the real world and an appreciation and expression of it. I highly recommend a visit to Wisley. The new learning centre for science is impressive, as is the new library.

Judges

House Art

2022 marked a change in House Art. Each House was given a 2m x 2m square of canvas and some acrylic paint. The constraints allowed for a vast range of expressive ideas to emerge from the 14 houses, which filled Concert Hall with banners and murals expressing each Houses’ identity. This year’s judges, successful interior designers Venetia Rudebeck and Romanos Brihi (both V 98) were impressed by the variety and inventiveness of designs and would have even used several of them in their high end interiors, which was praise indeed.

The winner, Fletcherites, produced a very accomplished mural of signifying objects and moments within the House space, from scary dolls to burnt toast, games consoles and Frank Fletcher in a surreal jaunty arrangement. Flo Leslie, Thea Marsh, Andra Popescu and Maria Dzhioeva’s painting skills came through very clearly.

Sutton’s design visualised baby seeds being sown by the creative influences in House to produce growing plants that flowered above ground. The driving designs by Harriet McCreanor, Tatiana Winterflood, Annabel Fox and Freya Jones were notable.

Manuth Kodithuwakku Arachchige collaborated with Verites to create a vibrant abstract painting with marks representing traces from many individuals in each year group.

First place: Fletcherites Second place: Sutton Third place: Verites Brush: Eddie Chai and Xavier Currill (R) Year 9 participation: Northbrook Year 10 participation: Archie Berry and Marcus Pritchard (L) Year 11 participation: Ryan O’Connor (D) and Louis Hodgson (D)

Sutton

Sarah Cheng (N) and Andra Popescu (F)

Art Scholar’s Show

Art scholars across all years put up a stimulating show of their work in Concert Hall. The works were hung in a non-hierarchical way, mixed among year groups. A Second Year Specialist’s work would rub shoulders with a Fourth’s, lending them equal status and emphasis. This curatorial choice nurtured a healthy artistic context in which artists learn from each other and relationships are built between the artworks.

The wealth of skill, varied techniques and themes stimulated discussion and curiosity amongst the visitors. In particular, Harriet McCreanor’s (Su) loose painterly narratives in oil on canvas contrasted with and complemented Annabel Fox’s (Su) exquisite personal, photorealist portraits solidifying transient moments. Both evoked a sense of memory and nostalgia in different ways. Stan Valev (H) and Binmo Chen (Su) both used life drawing to explore the figure, whilst the use of anime approached this theme from a different angle in the works of Beatrice Creer (Su) and Andrey Tolkushkin (W).

IB Visual Arts Exhibition

Anika Shah Aadya Seksaria

Emily Xu

Aadya Seksaria

Two years of hard work, in School and remotely, was crystallised in the IB visual arts exhibition. At their private view, the pupils were excellent hosts, welcoming visitors and guiding them through their curated show. The themes developed are always a strength of the IB course and this year pupils researched and created thought-provoking work. Alice Palumbo (Su) researched the differing cultural concepts of water, wanting to raise awareness of water management through her artworks. Anika Shah’s (F) exhibition was also topical, exploring the theme of identity and “focusing on the comparison and fusion of identity in relation to human experience”. A range of media were used to represent this: a multiscreen video, textiles, photography and oil paint. Aadya Seksaria (C) investigated and visualised human emotions and how they shape us as people, while Matilde Kinzer (F) “explored the theme of symbolism, more specifically in spirituality” through the perspective of her Italian upbringing. Emily Xu’s (Su) exhibition displayed a talent in not only painting but drawing through animation and comic books. She was asking What are cities? “An artificial habitat evolved into a natural environment and brought to life by its inhabitants: people”. The audience were particularly entranced by her short animation, combining intelligent storytelling with incredible technical skill. Her cartoons have become a regular feature in the Carthusian Magazine and I’m sure we will continue to read them in future.

Emily Xu discussing her work

Anika Shah

Matilde Kinzer

Perch Suwannakit

A level and GCSE show

This year’s A-Level show commanded Studio in a display of quality, sensitivity and visual richness. The trends towards figuration, personal links with friends and family, and the depiction of deeper psychological undercurrents dominated this year. Mother and child imagery became a motif for Jemima Hudson-Davis (Su) investigating her own childhood and Zlata Krokhmalna (C) who painted her mother with her new-born sister during a time of conflict in Ukraine.

Harriet McCreanor (Su) moved between painting and ceramic to explore modes of representation in telling personal stories and Tatiana Winterflood (Su) looked into themes of memory and dissociation.

This was offset by Manuth Kodithuwakku’s (V) bold abstraction and Rob Knight’s (R) reflexive use of materials. Rob won the painting prize for his experimental approach to non-linear processes.

This year’s OCAS prizes went to Tatiana Winterflood who is going to study Computer Games Design at SCAD in the USA. Another OCAS prize went to Amber Howard (Su) whose original and evocative concrete sculptures and animation based on human interaction in brutalist architecture captivated the judge, Jeremy Levison OC (G69).

The Levison/Pye Prize went to Emily Xu (Su) for her animation and 3D relief cityscape, which appeared in the Carthusian Day show.

The Jackson Prize went to Andrew Knight (R) for his experimental approach to painting and screen-printing.

Rob Knight

Annabel Fox

Manuth Kodithuwakka

Zlata Krokhamalna

Lucy Jennings

Jay Tao

Seventy Glorious Years

Godalming Museum hosted an exhibition of artworks by students from Broadwater School and Charterhouse commemorating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Kan Pitichaichan (H) and Stan Valev (H) represented Charterhouse at the Private View. Kan said, ‘It’s an honour to be part of this exhibition, a first of its kind in Godalming.’ It is hoped that the collaboration between Charterhouse and Broadwater will be an annual event.

The Mayor of Waverley (Councillor John Ward) and Councillor Shirley Faraday, the Mayor of Godalming, complimented Broadwater and Charterhouse for a lively and exciting collaboration which exhibited a broad spectrum of artworks in a range of media. A fabric patchwork of lino prints by Fourths was installed by Studio in the Gertrude Jekyll Garden outside the museum.

The Overlooked

For Artifex, Concert Hall was transformed with layered walls of light-translucent fabric forming a labyrinthine gallery space displaying photography and projected poetry. Curated and conceived by Eddie Chai (R) and Jordan Zhuo (R), ‘the Overlooked’ collated poetry and photography that drew attention to situations, scenes, people, objects and moments often overlooked publicly and individually, by choice and subconsciously.

The Cardboard Gallery

For Artifex, Binmo Chen (Su), an A-Level Art student interested in architecture, wanted to develop a small space that could serve a new function and reflect the historical architecture of the School.

Her resulting cardboard gallery elegantly marked its own space, mimicking the gothic arches of the South African Cloister. She invited a range of pupils and beaks to exhibit small works in it, thus igniting the space with new purpose.