News

OA Art and Design Work Celebrated in National Competition and SQA Exhibition

Personal Excellence

A piece of artwork by Old Aloysian Lizzie Carmichael has won a national competition to appear on the 2016 cover of national arts and crafts catalogue whilst the Advanced Higher architecture work of Helen Devine OA is currently being showcased at the SQA Advanced Higher Art Exhibition in Glasgow’s Scotland Street School Museum.

OA Lizzie Carmichael flourished in Art and Design at Higher and Advanced Higher levels and expertly reflected her two favourite subjects, Science and Art, through Still Life and Portrait paintings in her Higher and Advanced Higher portfolios.

Lizzie’s self-portrait in Acrylic paint, Double Orbit, was part of her Advanced Higher portfolio which featured the theme of Astronomy throughout and which was selected to feature on the cover of this year’s Specialist Crafts Magazine.

Describing her work in Specialists Crafts Catalogue, the Old Aloysian, said,

“I always like to make a point in really thinking about what colours I’m going to use and how they’ll look together. I made the rings curve upwards because I felt that it balanced the composition of the painting as the shoulders curve downwards in the opposite direction. As with most of my work I wanted the painting to stand out and be striking but at the same time I like to have everything work in harmony with each other and not be too harsh on the eye.“

Another Old Aloysian, Helen Devine, who was also a member of last year’s S6, has had her Architecture Portfolio selected to go on display at this year’s SQA Advanced Higher Exhibition at the Scotland Street School Museum.

The exhibition is open now and will run until Thursday the 29th of January, showcasing the best Advanced Higher artwork submitted to central marking by schools from all over Scotland this year.

Helen's brief was to redesign Buchanan Bus Station as a natural looking, stable structure, with high ceilings and plenty of light to create a calming and spacious environment.

In order to achieve this, Helen took inspiration from the Glasgow’s Gaelic translation of ‘Dear Green Place’ and looked to the natural structures of forests, focusing on the shapes and details of leaves and the height and stability of trees.

Helen managed to create a contemporary design which would add a striking feature building to the architecture of Glasgow and be instantly recognisable and attractive to tourists visiting the city.

Helen is now in first year at Edinburgh University studying Architecture whilst Lizzie has taken up a place to study Biochemistry at the University of St Andrew’s.