Fine Art

Departmental Philosophy

Art is for everyone. An understanding of the impulse to express and create, and the satisfying of this urge, is fundamental to the development of a person. Art is a major tool through which we learn to measure the world around us, by making judgements concerning issues and relationships, no matter how simple, abstract or esoteric they might be. The possibilities are endless, and the course can be bespoke to your interests. At a recent Art Society talk, painter Jenny Saville showed us images of her studio, where she surrounds herself with copies of works by her team of players – Rembrandt, Velázquez, Titian, Picasso. In this department, we help you to pick your own team, and then set your own questions.

The department takes a Fine Art stance, with particular emphasis on the importance of drawing, yet we maintain that anything is possible from that strong foundation, and pupils work in a very wide range of alternative media. Want to make a 500kg concrete sculpture? How about an immersive light and sound installation experience? Maybe you want to 3D print a city based on HP Lovecraft’s fiction? What about a making a waistcoat that breathes in and out? Or perhaps a huge oil painting, based on intricate bubbles found in resin blocks? Do it.

The department benefits from light, airy studio spaces, a darkroom, an ICT suite (running the latest Adobe software), a Rochat printing press, spraybooth and screenprinting resources, and a very well-equipped workshop (containing a suite of 3D printers, a lasercutter, and extensive tooling and hardware). The staff and pupils are supported by Art and DT technicians.

Design Technology is also taught as a discrete, timetabled subject (in addition to Art) in Years 5-8. Thereafter it is available as an extra-curricular activity. Artists also  make considerable use of the specialist resources, equipment and technical support from the DT Workshop throughout their GCSE and A-level courses, whenever they so wish.

Sixth Form

The Lower Sixth year offers the chance to reconsider working practice, as a series of Art History lectures and discussion classes supplements Life Class and taught workshops aimed at confounding your expectations, all while you develop your own preferred subject matter, style and interests. These projects eventually develop into coursework projects which are refined in the Upper Sixth. Each student has an ‘allocated teacher’ very much like an Art School – a spirit of dialogue prevails as we help you to navigate through your own ideas and challenges.

Extra-Curricular

There are a wide range of extra-curricular activities on offer across the department. The studios are always open 8am-6pm on weekdays, with occasional Saturday morning sessions on offer too. Anyone can make use of the facilities.

Weekly Life Class offers specialist training to Sixth Form artists, working from the model. There is a Darkroom/Photography Club, a Film Society, and a programme of events and opportunities for those holding Art Scholar/Exhibition status. Engineering Club is aimed at more senior pupils, often in tandem with their university preparation. The Art Society hosts high-profile visiting speakers, such as painter Jenny Saville.

There is a regular programme of study trips, to locations such as Kew Gardens or Roche Court, as well as visiting the vast array of Oxford collections such as the Ashmolean, MAO or Pitt-Rivers. The department has regularly led residential trips to New York, for a week of cultural immersion.

Where Art can take you

A number of pupils each year go on each year to Art Foundation courses at UAL (including Fashion pathways at Central St Martin’s), Oxford Brookes, Kingston and others, often before degrees in either Fine Art (such as the Ruskin School, University of Oxford) or transferring to other subjects.

Architecture remains a very popular subject for university study from MCS, and pupils in recent years have secured places on the most competitive courses at institutions such as the Bartlett (UCL), Bath, Cambridge, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham.

We also have a growing number of applicants for specialist courses such as Product Design (at top schools such as Northumbria), and History of Art (Bristol, Nottingham).