Windows into the worlds of Art, Architecture and Literature. 

The Art Department’s latest pop-up exhibition in Oakview delightfully captures a moment in time from the sketchbooks and studios of three Upper Sixth A Level Art students: Mia, Sum To and Lucia.

Whilst a simple common theme of ‘windows’ anchors them to a start point , their creative interpretations and journeys couldn’t be more diverse, each bringing their own skills to develop a theme more personal to them.

Mia’s love of painting and photography sees her work depict fleeting moments, often missed or disregarded as mundane and every day. Her paintings, prints and drawings however, bring these fragments of time to life and capture them for us to enjoy. Soft blended brushstrokes and colours convey the dreamy sense of memory, further adding to their impact.

The power of the visual mind is also explored within Lucia’s work, who as an avid reader, interprets the parallels between windows and books, as portals for our imagination. A running theme within Lucia’s work is the subtle use of text, both as part of the physical surface in her work, alongside the images the words conjure up. Lucia’s references take from opera, Greek mythology, historical architecture and fantasy novels to name but a few, each offering a different way of working from digital drawings to impressionist style painting. Lucia seeks to share the magic of literature and history through imagined scenes thereby offering a new window for the viewer to peer through.

Our third artist in this collection, Sum To, explores windows as features within architecture. At first glance the scenes she creates look mechanical and rigid but look closer and the spaces become more about the subtle changes in light and our interpretation of space and volume. The artificial rooms she presents to the viewer are meticulously observed from scale models she makes, based on spaces she has occupied. Her paintings step between worlds using windows as light sources to make us more aware of the interiors in which we spend time. Sum To describes how she feels in different environments and how the natural or artificial light source alters mood, productivity and perception. While some of her inspiration is taken from her home in Hong Kong, she is equally inspired by roller discos, cafes and exhibitions seen in London!

We hope this new exhibition offers a colourful, inspiring glimpse of how individual A Level art can be, opening a window to what takes place in the Art studios and the variety of connected artforms that can be explored.