National Competitions Art, Design & Technology

Design and Technology has had another excellent year and continues to grow in the opportunities offered both in and out of the classroom. Students attended trips to Thorpe Park, the Design Museum and WorldSKills UK and achieved the best result to date in Design Ventura. VEX robotics continues to grow, offering opportunities to all Key Stages and the first Crest awards of the department. Congratulations to all the staff and students for another fantastic year.

Rosie Hawley S___Head of Design & Technology

South Bank outside the museum.

Congratulations to Team Linear: Ben Stanbury (11J), Billy Belsham (11J), Danny Jenkins (11K), Leo Henderson (11K), Finn Duggan (11M) and James Read (11M).

VEX Robotics

The regional competition, hosted at St Olave’s, saw the Year 11 A team, and the Year 10 B team successfully gain places in the national competition in Birmingham, competing against 40 of the best school teams in the country. Our teams, “Smooth Operators”, and “The Machines” managed to knock out several opposing entries to progress to the 2nd day. Well done to the boys, particularly the Year 11s who won a trophy for “Best Build” and who and are already planning another robot for the November World Skills event.

Design Ventura

Congratulations to Year 11 Team Linear - Benjamin Stanbury, William Belsham, Daniel Jenkins, Leo Henderson, Finn Duggan and James Read - who were awarded second place in the Design Ventura competition - our highest achievement yet. Their wallet design, featuring an innovative and stylish living hinge, received great feedback from designer Sebastian Conran. The prototype is now on display in The Cube on the South Bank and will be sold in the Design Museum shop.

Arkwright Scholarship

Congratulations to Adam Stagg (12W) who has been invited to attend his investiture into the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers as part of his Arkwright Scholarship award.

Design Ventura

This year’s Design Ventura team, Linear visited the Design Museum again on Monday 28th April to discuss the development of their product, the wooden wallet which came 2nd in the competition earlier this year. The team made a start on trying to explore some of the problems and possibilities of their design and are excited to be working with a design firm to develop their concept further and hopefully get it into production. Their prototype is now on display in the cube on the

Congratulations to Bradley Sawyer (11L) who recently won 1st prize in the Stoneham Kitchen of the Future design competition. In addition to his own prize, Bradley has won £500 for the school to spend on art and design equipment; his winning entry will be displayed at the Stoneham Kitchens stand at the Grand Design Live 2014 event at ExCeL, London on 11 May.

If an Olavian student could be defined in one word, that word would be ‘creative’. The work produced in the Art department this year has not only reflected the student’s originality and inventiveness, but also their tireless dedication to the subject.

The department has been a constant hive of activity, with students running an increasing number of clubs and societies. ‘Art History Society’ has gone from strength to strength, helmed by Louis Newby and James Laing. The standard of presentations each week continued to impress, provoking discussion and debate. Many of these talks became academic essays that were featured in the department’s first annual journal, ‘Article’. Art club has produced some innovative work this year and the students who attended approached each task with energy and enthusiasm. Luke Reveley and Adenekan Lipede ensured that the young artists were inspired by new techniques and ideas. ‘Design and Culture Society’ began this year, run by AS student Luke O’Donovan, and attracted a staggering number of sixth formers, eager to discuss the links between topics such as architecture’s relationship with social mobility, to contemporary music influencing the evolution of the album cover.

As always the department took advantage of London’s rich variety of galleries, visiting the National Gallery, Tate Britain and the Saatchi Gallery among others. A real highlight of the year was the sixth form trip to Copenhagen. Embracing everything Scandinavian, the group visited galleries, saw the sights and were able take inspiration from a new and exciting city.

The department opened the new Lower Field Gallery this year with the first ever GCSE Art exhibition. The support for the event was impressive and it was a fantastic way to showcase the work of an exceptionally talented year group. This success was closely followed by the much anticipated AS and A Level exhibition. This included a wide variety of installations, paintings, sculptures and graphic design. Again, the turnout was much larger than precedented, with present and past pupils, parents and friends supporting the cohort. The exhibition highlighted the huge amount of artistic talent we have here at St Olaves and it was a truly proud moment for the department. 2013-2014 has been an exciting year for the Art department and 2014-2015 is promising to be just as industrious.Sixth Form Art &

Art Club

Art Club has restarted with a bang, run by the new Art prefects. Subject to ‘no apron, no entry’ students have created abstracts using contemporary practices by filling balloons with drawing ink and exploding these onto paper to give dynamic splatters and layers of contrasting colour.

Year 10 Gallery Visits

First stop for Year 10 was the Photographer’s Gallery, with inspiring works by Andy Warhol, David Lynch and William S. Burroughs, capturing moments on film. Across the river at the Hayward gallery students interacted with the works of controversial artist Martin Creed, enjoying his Turner Prize winning room, particularly as it filled with huge white balloons!

Architecture at University

Architecture student, Aidan Thomas, gave an interesting presentation on the reality of studying the subject at university. Now at Cambridge, Mr Thomas highlighted some intriguing new programs and techniques he is currently using to work on a building in London’s Cannon Street.

Cross Curricular Day

In a Year 9 cross-curricular day on WW1students learnt how conscientious objectors refused the conscription call up in 1916 on religious and moral grounds. In Art they designed memorials, in English they wrote poetry, in History they learnt how the objectors were treated before presenting commemorations to honour those who faced hard labour camps or even the death penalty for refusing to fight.

Year 7 National Portrait Gallery

Year 7 enjoyed a cultural day in London on Thursday. Most experienced the National Theatre’s backstage tour, learning about the engineering behind the scenes and how the props, sets and costumes are crafted. Despite the extensive building work, and the requirement to wear a hard hat, they enjoyed a fascinating tour.

The boys then went on to different art galleries including: The Wallace Collection, The National Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern where they learned about famous artists and writers and the cultural context that surrounds the paintings and exhibits. One group attended a ‘Pounds and Pence’ presentation at The Bank of England learning about our currency, inflation and bullion rates. A final group spent the day at the British Museum learning about the Elgin Marbles and then the new ‘Mummies’ Exhibition. The boys were extremely well behaved with several members of the public and gallery staff complimenting them on this and their very smart appearance. We hope that the experience will make them want to go back independently having had a taste of what is on offer.

GCSE Art Exhibition 2014

It is always inspiring to see the breath of talents held by your typical Olavian student and the GCSE Art exhibition showcased just this. On display was a staggering range of media and creativity. From stopmotion films, to glass sculptures, to digital innovation and tradition painting; the show had something for everyone. It was a fantastic opportunity for students, their families, and staff to celebrate the huge amount of work they have put in throughout the course. Congratulations to all the artists that took part and thank you to everyone that made the show such a success.

Restoration of ‘Portrait of a Young Girl’ by John Bettes the Younger [?] C1587

Portrait of a young girl’ has been hanging in the school hall since the school moved to Orpington in 1967. It had not been cleaned for a considerable time and it was decided a specialist conservator should be invited in to give some advice regarding the care of this painting. Richard Hallas, a specialist from the National Portrait Gallery, visited St Olave’s on 6th June 2014 to clean and restore the painting to ensure it is stabilised and secure for the foreseeable future.

The girl in the painting is likely to have been an important person as it would be unusual to have had such a large portrait done at that time and she is dressed in very fine clothes.

The painting is on a wood panel. A carpenter would have prepared the timber and fixed the three, different sized, timbers together. The wood is probably Baltic oak as it has an even, tight grain. On the reverse of the panel is a cradle which was probably added C1880. The vertical pieces are glued to the panel and the horizontals are supposed to move freely to allow the wood to ‘breathe’. However, our cradle is mostly stuck!

Richard removed the panel from the frame and was relieved to find no traces of woodworm.

The original frame would probably have been a fairly simple, English oak. There wouldn’t have been any glass which wasn’t installed until the 19th Century. [Paintings quickly had glass added to protect them from the polluted air in the smogs of the time.] Our frame is of no particular significance. It is probably a copy of a frame by Carlo Marratta and made in 19/20th century. The frame is likely to be pine and has had plaster ornaments applied. The ornaments would have been reverse moulded and the inner embellishment is ‘canvas leaf and shield’ [tongue] and the outer is ‘twist ribbon and stick’. Originally it would probably have been gilded, but often when the gilt dulled bronze paint was applied but this looks very dull and flat, very quickly. A coat of shellac has been added over this.

The glass is separated from the frame by glazing spacers. Richard added a velvet tape to prevent the paint surface touching the wooden glazing spacers. [Oils from the wood can often creep into the painting and spoil the work of art.] The tape has a special conservation glue attached to the back strip.

Richard lined the mirror plates [used to secure the painting to the frame] with plasterzote – a dense foam. This acts like a sponge and allows the frame to move whilst securing the picture in place.

The glass was cleaned using a commercial cleaner, using a brush to clean the frame and then wiping with water. [Some frames have been water gilded and these should never be cleaned with water as the gilt will rub off.] A clean, wide, brush was used to clean the actual painting. He wiped the brush carefully up and down and left and right repeatedly.

Once reassembled the final task was to add a moisture barrier made from Marvel seal to the back which was then taped down. Plasterzote blocks were added to the back to act as spacers so that when the painting was rehung it would stand proud of the wall, allowing a good air circulation around the painting and reduce temperature variations.

Our thanks to Richard for his work restoring our painting for future

AS and A Level Exhibition

This year has been an extremely exciting one for the Art Department. The range of talent across the cohort, and the dynamic discussion from the weekly Art History Society, have fuelled a hub of creativity within St Olaves. The exhibition included intriguing installations, collaged

by Tom Willis

films, photo realistic paintings, and even a sculpture formed of chicken bones. Staff, students and family came out in huge numbers to celebrate the hard work of the AS and A Level artists; a fitting end to the year for the many students who will be leaving us to study Art, Product Design and Architecture at university. Many thanks go out to all that helped set up the exhibition.

Photography trip to Copenhagen

During half term, sixth form Art and Photography students visited the stunning Danish capital, Copenhagen. A hub of Scandinavian culture and design, Copenhagen provided the group with inspirational architecture and world class galleries, museums and exhibitions. Students experienced the extravagant Glyptotek Museum, the surreal Tivoli Gardens and the Danish Design Museum, alongside a compulsory visit to Copenhagen’s famous ‘Little Mermaid’ sculpture, who coincidentally celebrated her 100th birthday this year. A highlight of the trip was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Set in a picturesque sculpture garden set right by the sea, the gallery included works by artistic heavy weights, Rothko, Bacon, Moore and Kandinsky, alongside contemporary masters such as Ai Weiwei, Keith Tyson and Wolfgang Tillmans. Despite the stormy conditions, the students all thoroughly enjoyed their Scandinavian experience and we look forward to an equally successful trip next year.

Clockwise, from top: On the streets of Copenhagen, The iconic mermaid, at the Louisana art gallery, a small selection of the work we saw