What do these have in common? – portraits and pieces created by the inspired young people at The Highfield.
Over the last 2 weeks the young people have been studying portraits and using Manet’s Portrait of Fanny Claus to think about famous people and how people use portraits to tell us about who people are / what they do / what they are like.
We have had Catriona, a local artist, working with us at Highfield to walk us through contemporary portraiture. We looked at various artists, firstly, some hung in the Ashmolean galleries to give us a feel of the history of portraiture and then Catriona used Emma Peyton’s work to think about contemporary styles and sitters – guiding us to think about famous people we admire, like and want to see with Mlle Claus.
The young people had free rein – choosing who they wanted to place into a double portrait with Mlle Claus. The young people started cutting, tracing, drawing painting straight away – choosing a range of famous people from David Bowie to Jennifer Lawrence, Adam Gilchrist to Jack White. As always the young people’s work was insightful and thoughtful, using a range of composition, mediums, styles, ideas and themes (nationality, style, fashion, being famous, juxtapositions of ‘contemporary’).
‘I’m surprised at how much art I have done. I’ve done more art in 2 weeks than I’ve done 
in all the years I’ve been at school. My portrait was what I had in mind from the beginning.’
For many o
f the young people, the process of thinking, cutting, sticking and painting is as important as the final product. While everyone is busy, we chat away and everyone’s work slowly emerges. Some of the young people knew from the start what they would do, some gathered ideas during the class to process and to work on during the 
week and others like to research more to let the piece slowly evolve. Catriona planned the activities so people could do as much of as little as they were comfortable with and according to how confident they felt with drawing and painting. This ensured everyone achieved by making a portrait, recognising that achievement is relative but essential in creating a positive learning environment for the young people.
‘The more I cut out the pictures, the more I enjoyed doing it.’
‘It’s great to have someone come in with fresh ideas and different thoughts on a painting. It is helping us see the painting from all different angles and helping us understand it.’
