We are very proud of all the work that our Year 13 students have produced and showcased in their end of year Art and Design Exhibition. We are sure you will agree that the quality is outstanding. Scroll down to meet some of the students, see a selection of their pieces and learn more about their work and inspiration.
Isabelle Bird – Fine Art
Landscapes
For my personal investigation I decided to look at landscapes. I wanted to produce pieces that are aesthetically pleasing. Pieces that can provide some escape. I wanted them to emote a tranquil, peaceful feel whilst also being cheerful and full of joy. I started by exploring Skies. I studied skies at different times of the day, in different weathers and from different angles. I decided to experiment with the idea of placing items into the foreground which ultimately led to the idea of painting a window looking up towards the sky. I wanted this piece to capture the escapism of looking out of a window at a picturesque view.
From there I then moved on to look at Seascapes, here I wanted to capture the feeling of the seaside in the summer. I decided to do this by increasing the saturation of my photos, exaggerating the colour when painting, producing a large scale, colourful oil painting which is both bold yet restful. Finally, I explored countryside scenes where I wanted to convey the beauty of the Norfolk countryside. I created a series of paintings containing a tractor at work in the fields using oil paint, brushes and palette knives. My final piece was of the same scene but edited, placing poppies in the foreground to add colour. For my overall final I wanted to explore this image in greater detail and heavily edited the tractor photo by adding a sky at sunset, darkening the image to give the impression of dusk as well as adding poppies nestling into the long grass in the foreground. I feel this piece captures a reflective and peaceful atmosphere experienced at the end of a long summer’s day. I intend to pursue Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts.
Norfolk Art & Design Competition 2025
Isabelle’s final piece was shortlisted in this year’s competition.
Josh Tree – Photography
Social Realism
The externally set topic of social realism led me to explore many paths, in both theme and technique. Theme-wise, I explored feminism, street photography, poetry, and my own personal social realism. The techniques used to explore these themes varies from: threading inspired by Victoria Villasana, collages inspired by Michael Moccia, text art influenced by Barbara Kruger as well as developing my own ways of working which include soluble paper manipulation and a variety of surface treatments. My final outcome became a personal reflection of my own social realism, myself, the people around me, and my surroundings. Each section includes how I view the people around me (people who I considers to be my closest friends) based on my knowledge of them, and importantly, their world. This concluded in a large scale collage that reflects how all of these ideas tie together into my own life experience (represented by the string that literally ties the collaged sections to each other). My final piece acts as a window into how I perceive my own world through a lens that only I can experience.
Isabelle Bird – Fine Art
Creatures
I chose to look at creatures for my Fine Art exam. I really liked the idea of creating pieces that captured the life and personality of animals and I believe this came from a lifetime of sketching this subject. I experimented with different creatures, owls, ducks, hamsters, then I landed and continued to look at my dog, as I have a special connection with her. I wanted to capture her personality through my pieces and wanted to make it fun, energetic and cheerful.
I studied the eyes of my dog as I think they make the painting look alive and I experimented with putting her in a landscape which was successful but I decided that I lost some of her fun and lively personality. This led me onto experimenting with a thick, short mark making technique in acrylic paintm looking at unusual angles and increasing the saturation of my photos. I felt this portrayed her personality and demonstrated my skill more. During my 15 hour exam, I created an A1 crylic painting which was more vibrant than my maquette and contained a variety of textures to make the fur differ from other features. I believe I was successful in creating a piece filled with joy and energy. I hope to use these skills again in my BA (Hons) Fine Art.
Tabitha Hayter – Art, Craft and Design
Plethora
The externally set topic that I chose was Plethora. This theme allowed me to create a wide range of ideas such as a plethora of colour, a plethora of items, and ultimately, a plethora of dots. I decided to explore the idea of stippling as this was a technique that I was not very familiar with, after experimenting I found it very enjoyable. My main artist of inspiration was Brecht Evans and his use of shape and colour to depict a story, this inspired me to use the word Plethora in a positive way. I am part of a very large family and the combination of both his inspiration and this gave me the idea to explore a type of fun event for families. To link this back to my theme, I chose a family friendly festival. My final outcome combined the use of photography which I converted into stippling and watercolour to capture the vibrancy and excitement of a family friendly festival. A festival demonstrates the idea of Plethora in many different ways. From the plethora of music, colours, and lights, to the emotional side of excitement, joy, and fun. Each section captures a different element of a festival, making for a visually appealing piece of art which ultimately can be used to promote a festival.
Isabelle Bird – Art, Craft and Design
Biomorphic Forms
I decided to study Biomorphic forms for my exam. I enjoy nature and I wanted to create something that was semi abstracted but still recognisable. I studied various natural forms, especially flowers and leaves. This led me to an artist named Chloe Kempster who upcycles furniture, painting unique and colourful flowers on them giving them a new lease of life. Her designs are simple but dramatic which gave me the idea of using a single brush to create blocks of colour, giving the design a slightly abstract look. I explored my context and decided to produce a piece inspired by the interior design of the Savoy Hotel in Miami which captured the light, summery and tropical feel I wanted to create on my furniture. I looked at a number of colour schemes and designs that featured in some of the rooms and based on my final design on the key colours within one of them. I experimented with my design on two different pieces of furniture before my 15 hour exam, one small table and one TV cabinet. This provided me with a sense of scale and colour which helped me plan my exam. I think my final piece captures the fun, tropical atmosphere of a five star Miami hotel fitting my overall context well.
Josh Tree – Photography
Growth and Change
I decided to explore the theme of Growth and Change as my Personal Investigation, as it stood out to me as a topic that had lots of opportunity to explore. Over the time I spend with this theme, I ended up with an extremely wide range of outcomes, digital and physical. I firstly experimented with collages, digital editing, and short form videos (GIFS) to explore my theme of Growth and Change. In this early work, I explored the theme through literature, nature and people, and precisely how these things grow or change in their own unique ways. The highlight of my early work was a short form video of a burning book, exploring the destruction of literature, representing the changing ideas about books, their ideas, themes and popularity as time passes. This change is shown through the destruction of the book as it slowly changes into something unrecognisable.
Literature became a common theme I explored in my work due to my personal passion for the subject. Therefore, Pathway One became a narrative based video that utilised my own poetrt, making it extremely personal to me. I continued with my video work in Pathway Two where I created a series of videos that became one, long form video that explored the change of emotions through music, colour and editing. The literature theme returns in Pathway Three as my final piece seeks to create an immersive experience, I created a collage in a book that they can pick up and flick through. As a final for this theme, I was inspired by the change in world politics and created a long form propaganda video that explored both my own poetry and use of music. I have been accepted in a course at St Johns University of York to further study English Literature. I hope to continue my work in poetry and become a more well rounded writer.
Isabelle Bird – Art, Craft and Design
Upcycling and Redesign
For my personal investigation I chose to look at Upcycling and Redesigning. Throughout my work I wanted to explore pattern, taking inspiration from Nature and Architecture. I find the outdoors calming and beautiful, and decided to experiment with different designs influenced by this. I experimented with techniques as well as materials such as wood and fabric. This led me onto creating clothing, bags and upcycling furniture. I started by exploring my idea of natural forms and created a dress from an upcycled corset using leaves to print a repetitive pattern in shades of a singular colour. I then decided to experiment with upcycling furniture, again exploring patterns within nature where I discovered macro photography whilst taking photos of butterfly wings close up, inspiring me to recreate the pattern in paint on a small table. My final idea was to create acessories, once again using patterns but this time I took inspiration not from nature but from architecture, as well as man made patterns such as carvings on gravestones. During a visit to Bury St Edmunds I took inspiration from a pattern I noticed on a wall in the town. I edited it and used it to create digital patterns which I printed on heat transfer paper which I transferred onto fabric. Once I had a length of printed fabric I was able to use it to make a variety of bags. I really enjoyed creating my own printed fabric for my bag and decided to continue with this by creating my overall final piece, a dress in a similar style to my first (using a corset as a base). I wanted all of my pieces to capture a professional, elegant and pleasing look which I think I achieved.
Tabitha Hayter – Art, Craft and Design
Culture in Fashion
In my personal investigation, I decided to explore Culture in Fashion, ranging from the use of fur in fashion to feminism. I chose this theme as I have an interest in fashion and the broadness made for a wide range of opportunities to explore. My art is a journey that begins by aiming to spread awareness surrounding issues in our society through fashion, and portray these issues in an eye-catching way that encourages the viewer to think deeper to understand the more significant meaning, before ending on the broader subject of fashion through the years. My coursework incorporates fashion through the years making for a very different outcome in each of my pathways which keeps my art lively and exciting. I explored my theme Culture in Fashion in three different ways: The use of fur in the fashion industry, feminism, and music’s influence on fashion.. These pathways allowed me to explore a different area of fashion each time to keep my work interesting. My first pathway was The use of fur in the fashion industry. I researched the significant impact that real fur in fashion had on endangered animals and the environment. This was eye opening to study and after a visit to the zoo, it was quite upsetting to learn about. This resulted in my final piece spreading awareness through a handmade zine to capture the authenticity of my feelings and the seriousness of the issues with fur in fashion. From this, I went onto my second pathway which was Feminism. I aimed to capture stereotypes for women and contrast them with the rebellion of the 1920s flappers in a 20s inspired dress. This juxtaposition created a subtle rebellion within the dress itself which leads to deeper thoughts about feminism and the ongoing issue with stereotypes. My final pathway was Music’s influence on fashion. This was an interesting area to explore as I was researching how hip hop artists had a major effect on fashion of the 1990s-2000s. For my final piece, I created a music video to capture the effect that music has, leading people to think about the culture of music and its relational effect on fashion. Next year, I am hoping to go to university to study Italian. This course will allow me to submerge myself in the culture of Italy – including fashion.
