School Based Projects

“Keepin’ It Real” January 2011, St. Edwards Middle School, Windsor.
A series of small trompe l’œil murals to identify areas of the school, history, art, etc.
Each piece, roughly 60 x 80 cm, painted in one day by a pair of year 7 pupils. Programme: 6 x half day slots.

“Proud to be Slough” July 2011, Westgate Secondary School, Slough.
A series of assembled small trompe l’œil panels, to show local things the pupils are proud of.
Sponsored by Barratt Homes, through Creative Partnerships. Each piece, roughly 60 x 80 cm, painted in one day by a single pupil, years 10 – 11. Programme: 2 x half day slots

“Celebrate 50” January 2012, Dedworth Middle School, Windsor.
A series of assembled small trompe l’œil panels, showing 50 years of DMS.
Each piece, roughly 60 x 60 cm, painted in one day by a single pupil, from years 7 and 8. Programme: 8 x half day slots.

“Creative Network Schools” started March 2012 and is ongoing, co-ordinated by Dedworth Middle School, Windsor.
I taught trompe l’œil painting techniques in several local schools (all Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead). Dedworth Middle, Dedworth Green, Alexander, Homer and Braywood First Schools. Years 1 to 8. Programme: several 2-3 hour slots as timetables allowed.

“Northwood Hills Town regeneration mural project” September – October 2013. The initial phase of this large project involved leading workshops in five Hillingdon schools to gather design ideas and community input. Programme: 5 days, each day two groups.

“Outside the Walls” a Heritage Lottery Fund Project Commission for Arts , March to June 2014, for Windsor Library. Design for a mural is developed from workshop input of six Windsor schools. Six afternoons.

“Art Teacher” January to May 2015, Dedworth Middle School, Windsor.
I was brought in as a supply art teacher for all years 7 and 8 to provide maternity cover. (Non-Qualified Teacher Status).

“Mobility Maps” October to November 2015, was an Army funded project for all the Army children in Dedworth Middle and Dedworth Green First Schools. The brief was to fill a wall space with some lasting artwork that can be added to with time. I came up with the idea of each child making a personal map pin to mark the part of the world their family has been posted to or involved with. Programme: a regular weekly slot of 3 hours, so all the Army children of both schools got time with me. 5 weeks.

“Eton Town Mural” October to November 2017. The initial phase of this large project involved leading workshops in two Eton schools to gather design ideas and community input about what they like about their home town. Swans and the River won. Programme: one half day with each year group of each school.

“David Shepherd Award” Autumn 2017- Spring 2018. I was the lead artist for a multi-artist lead series of workshops with children at Artspiration, Maidenhead. We put together their entry for this award, entitled \”Into the Wild\”, my input being guiding the overall design and tutoring paint techniques. What an honour that these children then won the David Shepherd Award at the Natural History Museum. With over 4,500 children taking part in this from 15 different countries, Very proud of our young talent! 6 x Saturday afternoons of 3 hours.

About my school workshops

I can offer tutoring in all 2D media, but I really specialise in certain areas:
Trompe l’oeil,
Anamorphosis, extreme perspective,
2D illusionary drawing,
Wildlife,
Street Art
Murals.
I am available for one day workshops, or I can commit to longer term projects, as you can see from the list of ones I have done since 2011.
I am DBS checked, have £6million PL insurance and can provide references.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss anything you are considering.

Parent feedback, ‘Keepin’ It Real’ project 2011

A testimonial from a parent of a pupil at St. Edwards Middle School, Windsor, 2011.
The ‘Keepin’ It Real’ project was a fantastic way of inspiring pupils to explore their creative ideas through Art. This year Mrs. Stevens, Head of Art and DT at St. Edwards Middle School selected a few pupils from Year 7 to work with two local artists who gave their time and talent to this programme, doing either murals or kinetic sculptures.
My son Ethan worked with Mr. Gordon Collett, painting a mural. He was greatly inspired and gained confidence to believe in his artistic abilities. The results are breathtaking. It is so important to nurture children’s talents and since being a part of the project my son has not stopped drawing and continues to amaze me with his art work. Gordon did an impressive job and his inspiration will continue to live in my son’s heart for years to come. I would like to thank you for giving my son that chance to believe in his talent.
Iris Hilmars.

Reference 2011 \"Keepin\' it Real\" St Edwards Royal Free Ecumenical Middle School, Windsor

I confirm that Gordon Collett was employed as a freelance mural artist for our ‘Creative Enquiries’ project, which ran in our school from 31st Jan- 7^th February 2011. He also participated in a whole school assembly on 11^th February in celebration of the project.
This involved him supporting 12 boys in painting 6 Trompe L’Oeil Vignettes around the interior of the school building. During the project Gordon demonstrated not only his considerable skill as an artist in his own right, but really supported and empowered the young men that he worked with to produce highly individualized pieces of art work that they are extremely proud of and that exceeded their own expectations of their abilities. Gordon was very efficient on the planning and preparation for this project and was a very good communicator. He was enthusiastic and very reliable.
I would happily re-employ Gordon as I consider him to be an excellent role model and advocate for the arts, who consistently achieved good results and delivered all expectations.
Cate Stevens
Head of Art & Design Technology. St Edwards Royal Free Ecumenical Middle School, Windsor

Reference: Art workshop, 2012, Dedworth Middle School \"Celebrate 50\"

Gordon Collett worked in our school between November 2011 and January 2012 with 22 of our Talented Artists from Years 5-8. The children created art work in the Trompe L\’oeil style under the expert guidance of Gordon. They worked in two groups for half of the project then as a whole group for the other half. They created an outside wall mural to celebrate our 50th year anniversary of our school.
I would highly recommend Gordon to work on projects of this nature, as he is able to successfully convey the complex techniques needed in a simple format whereby the children can easily grasp and produce high quality work, of which they are extremely proud.
As a school, we were extremely impressed with the outcome of this project and I hope that I am able to work with Gordon again in the future, as he has inspired not only the children, but also myself and our community visitors.
One of the pupils who worked on the project made the following comment:‘My experience with Gordon was fantastic! The support he gave us was great. The artistic skills he shared with us have really improved my painting, and the work I produced is definitely the best piece I have created to date. This is definitely one of my school experiences that I will always remember! Thank you Gordon.’ Tom, Year 7
Karen North
Deputy Head Teacher, Dedworth Middle School, Smiths Lane, Windsor, SL4 5PE

Reference: Dedworth Middle School 2013, re Windsor Creative Schools Network

I have had the pleasure of working with Gordon for a second academic year, and recently this has been in partnership within our Network of 5 local schools. Our theme this year was peer learning and the idea was to create sustainable links between our schools through our children working with, and learning from each other, using the arts as our creative media.
When we began to think about artists we could work with I immediately suggested Gordon as he had worked with my children on a project the previous year and I thought that his mural work could easily lend itself to this new idea.
Gordon has worked extremely effectively between the 5 schools, each school being given an amount of hours in which to complete their artistic output. Having Gordon as the link and working in all 5 of the schools has been instrumental in maintaining continuity and motivation, and providing a unified feel to the project even though all of our projects took on different themes.
The children who took part ranged from those who had previously worked with Gordon to those who needed to boost their technical skills; and Gordon successfully managed the challenge of working within the age ranges of 4-13 years old. The children gained a significant amount of self-confidence, and an improvement in their levels, as well as a sense of achievement and a public recognition of their efforts, as all artworks are being displayed within their school grounds.
As a school, we were once again extremely impressed with the outcomes the children created and I hope that other projects become available so that we are able to work with Gordon once again in the future.
The Network would highly recommend Gordon to work on projects of this nature.
Karen North
Deputy Head Teacher, Dedworth Middle School, Smiths Lane, Windsor, SL4 5PE

Reference: NQTS Art Teacher maternity cover 2015

I have had the pleasure of working with Gordon for a number of years on various projects in school and through our schools’ Arts Network. More recently the school has employed Gordon as an Art teacher to cover my maternity absence for 3 terms this academic year.

Gordon taught 8 classes of Year 7 and 8 pupils, he followed schemes; planned and developed some resources, marked work and begin to assess the children’s skill development. He ran the general lunch time art club and continued leading the Talented Artists lunch time club as well during this time; where he also supported the children to host their own art exhibition.

As a school, we were impressed with the outcomes the children produced and I will be working with Gordon again in Term 1 in the next academic year when he returns to school to work on further projects.
I would recommend Gordon to work to be employed in this capacity in the future.
Please feel free to contact me if further information is sought.

Yours faithfully
Karen North
Deputy Head Teacher, Dedworth Middle School, Smiths Lane, Windsor, SL4 5PE

School Feedback: “Outside the Walls” a Heritage Lottery Fund Project Commission for Arts , 2014

Gordon has worked with year 5 pupils at St Edwards RF Middle School on a 2 day project in conjunction with the Guildhall Museum in Windsor in March 2014. He led groups of 12 pupils for 1 hour sessions creating shop signs using artefacts from the museum as inspirations for their own designs.
Gordon has an excellent rapport with the pupils; he brought the project to life, inspiring all pupils regardless of their creative abilities, to produce high quality work. I personally had not worked with Gordon previously and found him to be very approachable and flexible. He was well organised for the event in school and all pupils gained from the experience.
I would highly recommend Gordon for other projects and wouldn’t hesitate to work with him again.
Judith Foskett
Art and DT Co-ordinator, St Edwards RF Middle School, Windsor
12^th May 2014

Reference: Artspiration for David Shepherd Award

It has been a pleasure working with Gordon. He has mentored our Advance group for 10- 16 years with various trompe l\’oeil projects. Not only are his projects unique and exciting, he is very resourceful and also most generous and loves to share his skills and knowledge.
After a few projects in 2016 and 2017, we worked with Gordon again in 2018 towards a Wildlife themed project. Gordon was the lead artist in this multi artist led project. What the children created won the prestigious David Shepherd Award 2018! We are looking forward to working with him again soon.

Shalini Nayak
Director, Artspiration School of Drawing and Painting