Acclaimed Artist Scarlett Raven Visits Local School Exhibition

To see pupils' artwork inspired by her work on the First World War

Pupils from local school, Falcon's School for Boys met the artist behind their recent creative project after inviting her to attend their art exhibition as guest of honour.

Contemporary mixed media artist Scarlett Raven made the special appearance at The Falcons School for Boys’ spring show, held at St Michael and All Angels Church, Chiswick, on Saturday 16th May.

l-r Jonathan Coke marketing officer Falcon's School for Boys, Scarlett Raven, Gordon Milne, headmaster

Scarlett - whose work has already gained the support of celebrity fans such as Orlando Bloom and Take That - talked to students and viewed their art before presenting six awards for stand out paintings produced by the children from nursery to year eight.

400 people attended the Falcons Art Exhibition ‘The Big Draw’ to see artwork created by each one of the 355 pupils in the school, aged from three to thirteen. There was also a silent auction on 14 canvasses which raised just over £4,000 for the Falcons Primary School in Sierra Leone.

Linking in with the world’s biggest drawing festival, The Big Draw and its theme ‘Every Drawing Tells a Story’, the boys used Raven’s ‘Eleventh Hour’ collection as inspiration. Her mixed media paintings pay homage to fallen heroes of the First World War, focusing on the poppy as an emotionally enduring and symbolically charged icon of war and remembrance.

some of the artwork displayed

Scarlett, 28, was delighted by the school’s work: “I couldn’t be more proud and honoured to have been the inspiration for young painters,” she exclaims.

“The Falcons School for Boys did an absolutely amazing job of recreating their own versions from my Eleventh Hour collection. It was very hard to pick just six winners for the prize giving as every one of the boys deserved recognition for their art.”

Headmaster Gordon Milne says: “It was wonderful to see pupils meeting the artist behind their recent school project.

“The children loved analysing her different paintings and discussing the feelings and emotions that each evoked. They especially enjoyed the way that the different works, despite being of the same field of poppies, told different stories and created different moods and atmospheres that made them feel different.”

Raven – whose work was brought to the UK art scene by Washington Green through its network of Castle Galleries and independent partners - has a unique abstract technique of intricately incorporating everyday items such as rope, wood, fabric and wax into her artwork to create pieces that hold the most fragile of meanings despite their heavy structure.

Her trademark painting method is layering oils, lacing faster drying paint on top of that taking longer to dry, resulting in a cracking effect to reveal colours and textures underneath. Raven’s opening exhibition at Castle Fine Art, Mayfair in late 2014, drew famous faces such as the likes of singer Duffy and ITV television presenter, Kate Thornton. She donated one of her ’Eleventh Hour’ pieces to The Royal British Legion to auction off at their fundraising Poppy Ball.

For more information about Scarlett Raven and her work, visit www.castlegalleries.com.

May 29, 2015