Roanne Grixoni - Architectural Artist

This years "Clifton College Arts Week" was the most ambitious arts week ever undertaken by the school and involved music, drama and the visual arts. Concerts, exhibitions and plays achieved widespread critical acclaim and Roanne Grixoni's exhibition of architectural paintings was one of the most challenging, and thought provoking on show. Roanne came as "Artist in Residence" to Jonathan MacFarlane's department in the Upper School, and we were particularly pleased to be able to work with her in the Pre for a short while. Her early work involved bold and monumental images in heighten vertical perspective, drawn from first hand observation from such structures as cathedrals and civic buildings. Later colour and detail became more prevalent and a method of isolating small sections of large drawings for their abstract and textual qualities evolved. Our children saw in Roanne's work the freedom to interpret the images in individual and imaginative ways.

Asked to sum up one of her pictures in just four words, assessments resulted in adjectives like; enigmatic, mysterious, textural, bold, peaceful, cold, transparent and atmospheric.

They were then able to experience her working methods first hand. Given black pastel and brown paper, the children were taken to make drawings of sections of pillars, arches, gargoyles, benches, tiles etc. in the school's chapel deliberately seeking out the abstract and the textural.