The Art of Kindness

Thirty years ago, Graham Mobbs set foot in the 1200 to begin leading the LWC Art School.

 

Three decades later and on the cusp of leaving the College to focus on his work as a fine art ceramicist, he reflects on his time at LWC.

 

“I think I’d most like to be remembered as kind,” he admits. “I like to think that whatever I do is out of kindness and support.”

 

Mr Mobbs has much to be proud of in his time at the College. A self-confessed ‘believer in fate,’ he became a teacher after spotting an advertisement on a notice board when coming to the end of his degree in ceramics at the University of Bristol.

 

“The ad was looking for an Artist in Residence at Carmel College, a Jewish boarding school in Oxfordshire,” Graham explains. “I applied and was fortunate enough to get offered a post. Within a term, I was given a full-time teaching job and later became a housemaster and head of department. We ran a full programme of art with brilliant, outward-thinking artists,” (some of whom he’s still in touch with).

 

“Carmel College had a great location and was a brilliant place to begin a teaching career,” he continues. “It was right on the River Thames and I began canoeing there. It was fantastic.” The canoeing, much like the art, would go on to shape much of Graham’s life, even if he was yet to realise it.

 

Ten years after joining Carmel College (at the time dubbed the ‘Jewish Eton’), Graham applied to become Head of Art at Lord Wandsworth College.

 

The small faculty he initially inherited is a far cry from what it has become. With consistently strong results across both GCSE and A-level Art, the department has produced artists who’ve gone on to practise beyond the Acorn Gates. These include ceramist Lottie Eastwood and artist Kate Towsey. Keen to encourage his students to immerse themselves in the work of others and to ‘touch art daily’, Graham has also overseen the arrival of renowned artists such as Mark Spray and Keziah Burt to workshop with year groups as part of annual residencies.

 

“Artists see the world with open eyes. They are open-minded and not fixed to any point.”

-Graham Mobbs, LWC Teacher of Art

   

From September, the LWC Art School will relocate to The Grove – a state-of-the-art creative space that will also house Design and Technology. But Graham’s method for cultivating talent and inspiring students will remain.

 

“It’s important to understand what makes each individual work,” he explains. “If you can help them to feel heard, trusted and safe, then you can support and encourage them to develop, be creative and find their artistic voice. When students are smiling and happy to be in the space that you work in, that’s the most exciting part as they really start to flourish.”

 

Art and teaching have much in common when you factor in this approach. Both require exquisite observational skills in order to get the very best out of their subjects.

 

“Artists see the world with open eyes,” Graham continues. “They are open-minded and not fixed to any point.”

 

That desire to not be fixed, brings us to another legacy that Graham leaves at the College. Having built up a healthy appetite for canoeing at Carmel College, it’s little surprise that in 1997, he persuaded then Headmaster Guy de Waller to purchase five boats to begin marathon canoeing at LWC.

 

“The boats arrived in December 1997 and we began DW the following year,” he explains. “We started with six super-keen boys and we began winning everything.”

 

Since then, LWC has seen 200 paddlers progress through its marathon canoe offering. The College dominated at this year’s Devizes to Westminster International Junior Canoe Race, fielding a third of the boats entered and securing an array of top finishes. It has now firmly earned its place as one of the top schools in the country for marathon canoeing, which arguably all began with a Head of Art, keen to widen the worlds of those around him.

 

“It’s life-changing for everybody who gets involved,” Graham reveals. “Not only the paddlers themselves but their families too.”

   

And not content with helping to build a successful Art School and Marathon Canoe Programme at LWC, Graham cites one of his other highlights as being Houseparent at Sutton House for five years.

 

“Two of my four children were born at Sutton,” Graham smiles. “I even delivered my eldest son there myself. My youngest daughter arrived just before roll call and her birth was announced to the students ten minutes later.”

 

Sutton thrived under Graham’s leadership and he and his wife, Alissa, developed a family atmosphere together there; “Students used to say it was like coming home,” he adds. Sternian, Kit Ellen-Eyre spent time there as a Foundationer, alongside his two older brothers and has fond memories of his former Houseparent.

 

“Mr Mobbs is just a really good guy,” Kit reveals. “He’s very gentle, had his eye on us and was always there if we needed him.” Kit talks of Graham taking one of his brothers under his wing and inspiring a love of canoeing. Years later, Graham would attend Kit’s wedding.

 

With an impressive list of achievements at LWC, which also includes a heavy involvement in the College’s Combined Cadet Force (CCF) and running many an adventure training opportunity, Graham remains true to his original statement of being keen to leave behind a feeling as he embarks on his exciting new chapter:

 

“I consider myself very privileged to have worked alongside some inspirational people during my career. When I asked my 4^th Form artists why they were so brilliant the other day, their response was that it’s because I’m gentle and kind, and I’m happy with that.”