Sophie Ryder
Sophie Ryder is best known for her large scale sculptures, in wire, bronze and plaster, of figures with the heads of Hares and Minatours. Many will know her sculpture that sits in Cheltenham Promenade. Her work is inspiring and aspirational on many levels. It is often staggering in its sheer scale and one can only marvel at how such a slight and softly spoken woman could physically have created such things. Her use of materials and textures are exciting. However, beyond the surface qualities the work is also highly personal and imaginative. It is emotionally engaging with a spiritual and poetic quality that makes it fascinating and attractive.
Pupils used the experience as a starting point for a project on 'zoomorphism' and produced large scale drawings and sculptures in plaster or clay.
London (Seniors)
Over the course of a two day excursion, a group of Lower Sixth found inspiration in infamous masterpieces by influential artists, broadly ranging from contemporaries such as Lucian Freud to classics such as Van Gogh. They visited Tate Modern, including the long awaited Gauguin Exhibition featuring over 100 masterpieces by the ‘master of modern art’, including still life, self-portraiture, photographs and landscapes; the Saatchi Gallery which houses a broad spectrum of contemporary art; Tate Britain which featured a range of pieces from the Romantics to contemporary artists, including work by the British sculptor Henry Moore and the controversial work of Damian Hirst; the National Gallery which houses an intriguing collection of Western European paintings dating from the 13th - 19th centuries, particularly the incredibly detailed Renaissance pieces; and the intimate Courtauld Gallery with its small collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings and sculptures, literally ‘face to face with world-famous art’.
The trip broadened the pupils’ understanding of art, enriched their artistic knowledge and inspired them to expand their artistic ability and further develop their own style. In the confident, inspiring words of Paul Gauguin, “I am just a great artist and I know it.”