Portraits of the artists as young girls
Distinguished portrait painter Peter Edwards RCA spent a day at The Queen’s School, Chester giving a master class to sixth form art students and then demonstrating his portrait-painting skills at a soirée for parents and friends of the school.
During the workshop session, sixth form students had the opportunity to watch Peter paint a self-portrait, watch and listen to a presentation about his work and then receive individual tuition as they painted their own self-portraits. Painting a self-portrait from life is one of the most demanding artistic activities an artist can undertake but with Peter’s expertise the girls were able to produce some remarkable results.
At the soirée Peter, whose sitters have included Oliver Reed, Sir Ben Kingsley and Sir Bobby Charlton, treated parents, pupils and friends of the school to a demonstration of how he starts a portrait and a member of the audience was chosen to sit for his portrait. The lucky model was Lex Czuloswski, age 10, who was then allowed to take this sketch home. Peter alternately inspired, delighted and entertained his audience, offering them a unique insight into the working methods of one of the country’s most prominent portrait painters.
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Press Contact: Mrs Jane Taylor, The Queen’s School, City Walls Road, Chester, CH1 2NN Tel: 01244 312078 Fax: 01244 321507 Email: jtaylor@queens.cheshire.sch.uk
Notes: Peter Edwards is an important British portrait painter who has exhibited widely. His work can be seen in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Portrait Gallery, London; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Ulster Museum, Belfast; Jesus College, Cambridge; and St. John’s College, Cambridge, as well as numerous private and corporate collections. Sitters have included Kazuo Ishiguro, Oliver Reed, Baroness Tessa Blackstone, Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Bobby Charlton, Seamus Heaney and Willy Russell.
The Queen’s School, Chester, Cheshire is one of the country’s leading independent schools offering the highest standard of education for girls from ages 4 – 18.
Since its foundation, The Queen’s School has always been a highly successful academic school. In the latest Government league tables published in January 2007, Queen’s was again ranked as the top school in Cheshire based on both GCSE and A/AS level results.
Academic success is only one aspect of life at Queen’s. The Queen’s School and its staff encourage all girls to participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities; these include drama clubs, plays and musicals, cabaret evenings, choirs and orchestras, a variety of sports such as tennis, lacrosse, football, athletics and gymnastics as well as a science club, an equine club and the Friday club which involves girls helping in the community. There is also the chance to travel with the school on adventure holidays, foreign treks, scientific research expeditions, French and German exchanges and skiing trips.
Established by a group of prominent Chester citizens in 1878 as the Chester School for Girls, the school was renamed four years later by command of Queen Victoria and is proud to remain the only school in the country to have been granted the name The Queen’s School by royal decree. The school has a number of bursaries available to students. Mrs Catherine Buckley is the present headmistress of The Queen’s School. Mrs Felicity Taylor is head of the Lower School on Liverpool Road.
Past pupils include Beth Tweddle, Olympic Gymnast, Sarah Kelly founder of the UK’s Neuromuscular Centre for muscular dystrophy and Vivienne Faull, the first woman to become Dean of an English Cathedral.
More information available from www.queens.cheshire.sch.uk
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