Our Art department ended the school year on a high with the Summer Art Exhibition, an annual collaboration and celebration of the creativity and talent of our students.

Work was on show from Year 11 GCSE, Year 12 and Year 13 A Level students and Visual Arts International Baccalaureate (IB) students with around 60 individuals taking part in the exhibition.

Hannah Wilson, Head of Art at Royal High School Bath, said: “The Art Show is an essential part of our academic year as it offers the opportunity for students to be brave and ambitious and begin to consider the audience in relation to their work. I am so proud of what they achieve and enjoy the challenge of curating the show every year. Creativity is our raison d’être and we thrive through sharing this opportunity with others.

“For our Year 13 students this marks the end of their journey with us, however, I am extremely proud that for many this is just the beginning of what promises to be a life immersed in creativity with so many going on to study within the Arts: be it Architecture, Fine Art, or Fashion.”

Two Year 13 A Level students, Lara Chalkley and Alexis Qi whose paintings were selected for the front and back covers of the Art Exhibition catalogue share the inspiration and process behind their pieces.

Lara Chalkley said: “I had no prior experience using oil paints. Still, I instantly fell in love with how vibrant, and blendable they were and how well they lent themselves to the more symbolic, dream-like and illusory style of painting I wanted to use to combine and abstract the different elements amassed from found imagery. I am glad with the result of my final outcome as one of my first real explorations using the medium and particular painting style. I look forward to continuing to explore painting as well as photography in the future during my spare time over my gap year and university degree.”

Commenting on her artwork, Alexis Qi said: “Generally, my whole sketchbook contains two main projects: Girl with Flowers and Abstract Flower and I set bittersweet as my sub-theme. In a famous Chinese literary novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber, the principal character, Lin Tai-yu’s habit of burying flowers reveals the main idea in most of my paintings: when delighted by the blossom of the flowers and the flamboyant lives of creatures, we start to mourn the withering and the death of them.

Alexis also said: “I want to thank my art teachers for the invaluable support they provided to me during my two year A-Level course and for using my watercolour painting as the cover of the FINAL Summer Art Show!”

The Art Exhibition is displayed in Royal High School Bath’s stand-alone Art School specially designed by and named after the late Graeme Preedy, the School’s much loved and inspirational Head of Art. During his 20 years at Royal High School, Mr Preedy created an inspiring Art School that welcomed one and all, recognising and encouraging talent. He was an inspiration to successive generations of students, countless numbers of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in visual arts. The Art School he created is one of the brightest jewels in the school’s crown.

More photos of the Summer Art Exhibition are available on Flickr.