“For me, today has been both an insight into the art world, i.e what it means to be a practicing artist, but equally what it means to express your thoughts and ideas through the medium of art.” Felix

On Monday 7 December our Year 12 artists participated in an fascinating online Art in Action event, ‘The Creative Process’. During this immersive day, the boys got the exciting opportunity to digitally ‘meet’ and hear from four leading artists:

• Grayson Perry CBE RA, Artist: Turner Prize-winner Grayson Perry is a renowned English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster whose unconventional artwork explores ways to comment on society’s injustices and hypocrisies.
• Emma Hart, Installation artist: Emma Hart is an installation artist whose multidisciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, video and performance. She is also the Max Mara Art Prize for Women winner 2017.
• Simon Roberts, critically-acclaimed photographer: Recently made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, Simon’s explorative work deals with our relationship to landscape and notions of identity.
• Roz Hall, Digital artist: Roz Hall is a Lumen Prize finalist who specialising in portraiture created on tablet and mobile devices, working with both Apple and Microsoft.

Through fascinating online presentations (and even a live demonstration of digital painting from Roz Hall), each artist shared their unique creative journeys, what inspires them, and how they turn an idea into a work of art.

Felix reflected: “I enjoyed the way that Emma Hart spoke about process, and the development of her skills running alongside her career. I loved the way that she picked up on little ideas, and realised it as a project.”

Throughout the day boys were able to engage with the artists through live chats, voting and polls. Bailey was even one of the lucky few out of over 1,100 students to be voted up and be able to ask Grayson Perry his own question live, on whether social media helps or hinders his creativity. Turns out, it does both! Grinning down the camera mischievously, Grayson explained he even makes a point of following people he really dislikes to find innovation.

The boys left inspired and reflecting upon their own art practise. Klennen took inspiration from Roz Hall’s lecture, explaining: "After looking at his digital paintings I think I might look into creating a more stylised art form instead of trying to replicate images."

Bailey commented: “I have realised the best type of art is not one that describes a scenario or emotion, but one that makes the viewer feel something, or be inspired to make some sort of change to their life based from the work they saw, no matter the scale of this change”.