Pupil's Art Gallery : St. Mary's Town & Country School

St Mary's Town & Country School
Students Art Gallery

Whilst it is obvious that The Town & Country School encouraged us to be creative in many fields, it seems to me that it was talented pupils, as well as the teachers, that made the school into such a remarkably fertile melting pot. I myself was often inspired by my fellow school friends as well as excellent teachers such as Jean Bennett and Mary Gorara.

I therefore thought it a good idea to feature here, a selection of artwork, made by former pupils of our school from all decades. I have included in random order, paintings, sculpture, music, drama, poetry and prose in a vertical scrolling format. Some works were made at the school itself, whilst others were produced after pupils had moved on. I make no apologies for including a large number of pieces by Joshua Thomas, now known as Joshua Pilkington Thomas, their excellence and the fact that Joshua has kindly made them available to me explains why.

Wherever possible, I have included name and date with each piece. I have sought permission from the author/artist wherever I can, but I will remove any work that I am requested to. Conversely, if you can provide anything new for me to include below, I would be delighted to include it, so please let me know.
All artwork, in whatever form, is copyright by it's creator and may not be reproduced in whole or part without their explicit consent
For security purposes the images on this page contain a hidden watermark © 2010 All rights reserved

Interestingly, most of the artwork from Joshua Pilkington Thomas included here
is contained in a small artwork book given to him as a gift from Mary Gorara
which he subsequently filled cover to cover over a period of years.

Joshua Thomas 1976

Joshua Thomas c1974

Sarah & Susan Summer Term 1967

Fire at Night - Mayo Elstob 1966

Villa Ararat Treviso Italy - Biba Ashmore - Date Unknown

Joshua Thomas 1976

Entangled after Escher Joshua Thomas c1970

Mini-Essay, sent to Annabel Magazine by Jean Bennet - Norman Barrington 1966
Although it was indeed an accolade to have Miss Bennett read this out at assembly,
I recall being not a little embarrassed by being featured in a woman's magazine.
Besides, what on earth was Miss Bennett doing reading Annabell?

Jaques Prévert

During French lessons in 1967, including French Without Reading, we were studying the poems of Jaques Prévert.
Later, each of us was given just a title of a Prévert poem, and instructed to write our own poems simply based on the title alone.
Mr. Neville collected them and sent to Jaques Prévert himself.
The poems, Mr. Neville's letter and a note about Jaques Prévert's reply are reproduced in full below
and were provided by Melanie Hughes who found them amongst a hoard of papers left by her late Mum

Faces in a Maze - Joshua Thomas c1969

Imaginary Amazon Forest for Mrs. Bevan - Norman Barrington 1961

The complete 48 page Anthology as published in 1956, with preface by Elisabeth Paul & Jon Silkin, featuring work by Anthony Spearman (12), Sarah Shepheard (11), Kip Hampton (15), Toni Roland (16), Caroline Mortimer (12), Helen Ogilvy-Webb (7), Susan Packard (8), Lucinda Huxley (8), Mary Blanchet (8), Rachel Ibbetson (14), John Cannon (14), Peter Friedman (8), Susan Hitches (11), Charlotte Bereford (11), Margaret Clark (15), Nigel Flynn (12), Daniela Borchard (14), Peggy Hutchens (12), Emily Abercrombie (11), James Wyld (10), Jasper Selwyn (10), Richard Cronbach (15), Sylvia Hobbs (15), Hazel Russman (10), Vivian Cook (14), Vida Litvinoff (13), Dayl Beven (9), Alex Stowell (9), Rosemary Lea (14), Dianne Richter (11), Michael Bieber (9), Tasha Parson (8), Mark Gaudin (15), David Hyam (15), Lisa Dyer (13), John Hall (16), Naomi Jacoby (11), John Cannon (14), Susie ? (6), Elma Cameron (12), Julie Allan (14), Mary ? (7), Susan Packard (8), Neil Crawford (13), Craig Sams (11), Peta Van Rood (9), Gillian Booth (15), Seth Mydans (9), Ernest Weiss (9), Robin Bowley (10), John Eaves (10),  Andrea Strasser (13),  and Priscilla Eaves (14).

(kindly supplied by Naomi Stadlen - nee Jacoby)

Anthology as published in 1956 with poems written between 1940 and 1956, at Yarkhill and Eton Avenue
It would be too large to include all here so can be viewed in a separate window in PDF format

The Anthology is downloadable as an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) File.
You can choose from two versions as below;

  (i) Actual scans of the original pages in black/white, but making a large file for downloading.
To Download this version, RIGHT CLICK THIS LINK and choose 'save target as....'

  (ii) Recreated pages in colour, making a small file for downloading with clearer text.
To Download this version, RIGHT CLICK THIS LINK and choose 'save target as....'

Nicolette Ismay Untitled 1979 Acrylic and pastel on paper Size 118x76cm

Half Head dark pen and ink Joshua Thomas c1972

Heads - Joshua Thomas c1968

Portrait of Norman Barrington - Stella Brown 1964
An art teacher rather than a pupil,but formative nonetheless

Ned Kelly - Joshua Thomas 1967

Torsos Joshua Thomas c1970

“The Land of Heart’s Desire” a play by William Butler Yeats,
The curtain line up is James Williams (the music teacher) smokes a pipe
The small girl beside him was Nina (?), Daisy Glade played the part of the Priest;
Valerie Morrison: the fairy (with long hair and flowers on my head); Val can’t recall the names of the other two
Autumn Term 1946 and Spring Term 1947
Space does not allow all the photos of the play in this gallery but they can be seen with more narrative by Clicking Here

Woman's Head - Joshua Thomas c1970

Joshua 1969 with Mask Construction and Geodesic Structures

Geodesic Mask Construction, inspired in part by Keith Critchlow, the son of our boarding house matron, Rosalind Critchlow. Joshua Thomas 2007

Wendy Burk & Michael Hall by Michael Hall 1948

Wendy Burk & Michael Hall by Michael Hall 1948

Stanford Hall and Park 1948 by Michael Hall (with known names included)

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The following program is for the School's Christmas event for 1966 which did not feature
a play at the Rudolph Steiner Hall as normally done, but only singing/reading at the school itself.

I recorded some of this event at the time and so this is a musical entry in the gallery
Where a recording exists, (there are five in all) the mouse pointer becomes a hand icon
which indicates that you can click the title of the carole
and hear it play (if your speakers are on!) sorry the quality is not too good.

It is remarkable that I still have the recordings 45 years later that match this program sheet
unearthed by Melanie Hughes to whom my thanks go, for providing this piece of history

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