My name is Maria and I am a Year 10 Blackheath High School Art Scholar. Before joining Blackheath in Year 7, I had always been interested in Art and took classes outside of my school as we rarely did art lessons. I would always look forward to these weekly sessions and they taught me lots of different styles and techniques which helped me win the Art scholarship. This year, I started my GCSE course and my experience with Art so far has been enjoyable and I am excited for what’s yet to come. 

Art can be produced by lots of different ways, like paintings or sculptures, but personally my favourite and strongest are using regular pencils for realistic concepts. I find satisfaction in the progression of my work, slowly transitioning to the original photo or the primary sources, and using pencils allows me to control the outcome. 

In Year 9, I had the opportunity to join the Fashion Society. It was a weekly commitment and one I definitely enjoyed. The other girls and I planned out our theme, where we designed garments based on who would model them in the Fashion Show later on in the year. I learnt new things like sewing, screen printing and modelling and the Fashion Show was really fun and an exciting experience – one I never thought would happen.  

During half term this year, Art students in Year 10 and above went on a trip to Amsterdam. It was four days and we managed to visit five museums. The first was the Stedelijk Museum, a modern art museum with lots of different concepts and techniques that I had never seen before. The second day we went to the Eye Film Museum, where we learnt a lot about how the first films were made and the difference to films produced today. The same day we visited the STRAAT museum, a graffiti art museum which was very vibrant and artwork was made on a very large canvases, some over twenty feet tall! On the last two days we went to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum where we saw lots of famous pieces of art: the self-portraits from Van Gogh for example. In between these visits, we had time to explore Amsterdam, we even went on a canal tour which gave us a great views of the city.  

I am incredibly grateful for these opportunities offered here at Blackheath High School, and I hope there will be more in the future!