Art from the farm
The art department has a long standing partnership with the school farm. Many students have a story about how a pig has nibbled their sketchbook or nudged them while being drawn. U
sing the farm environment and the animals for first hand observation is a highly valued resource and offers our students a far richer learning experience than copying from photographs in the classroom.
Many artists use farm animals as a basis for their work and this can be drawn on as exemplar material e.g. Henry Moore, Stubbs, Nicola Hicks, all worked within the landscape in front of their subjects before turning to studio work.
In 2002, Brighton based artist Julian Le Bas worked at the school. He was so taken with the farm that for the next twelve months he visited and worked on a regular basis culminating in a major exhibition of his work in the Brighton Festival, all paintings based on the Oathall pigs. The school has had several artists in residence who have used the farm as their main source of inspiration.
During KS3 and KS4 students are encouraged to use the farm as a resource. Annually, Year 7 and 8 are taken in lessons to draw with follow up sculpture and printmaking in the classroom. GCSE students take photographs, draw and paint using the animals and their environments as part of their exam coursework. As a department we visit the farm with curiosity and enthusiasm and welcome any opportunity to show that in the students artwork.
