About Me

My most significant past teaching experiences are my time at Minterne Junior School, from 1993 to 1996, where I was the Art co-ordinator. I wrote the school Art policy, the schemes of work and was responsible for Art stock. In addition I ran workshops for the staff on specific skills and techniques. And from 1997 to 1999 when I worked for I.S.P. where I was class teacher for a class of 4 to 13 year olds who were all looked after by Local Authorities, and who all presented a challenge both in behaviour and learning. I wrote medium term plans for a large part of the Key-stage 2 curriculum, and designed methods of assessment and record keeping. I frequently attended review meetings and evaluated I.E.P.’s, working closely with the S.E.N.C.O. and Speech and Language Therapists.

From January 2003 to March 2005 I was living in South Africa. I was travelling for the first six months, then I discovered many opportunities to work and volunteer as a mural artist. During this time, I was able to develop as an artist in ways I’d never had the chance to before.

I painted murals in a range of settings: Hospitals, Children’s Homes, Backpacker lodges, Trance clubs, farm shops, Dr’s. houses, rural toilets and Volkswagens.

I painted a range of styles and subjects: Tromp L’oeil, cartoons, landscapes, portraits, animals, plants and jungles.

My most significant work was as a volunteer for a unique Rural Community Development Project, ‘Bulungula’, in the Eastern Cape. Here I helped design and build a community based Backpackers. I created the colour schemes, designs and murals throughout.

As part of community development, I trained women from the community in drawing and painting techniques, and helped them to set up a business, painting and selling pots to both tourists and the community. See www.bulungula.com
I volunteered at a children’s home in Port St Johns, in the Eastern Cape. I ran drawing workshops with the children, and used their designs along with cartoon characters in my murals to decorate and personalise their building.

In rural hospitals in the Eastern Cape, I painted cartoon characters in children’s wards, giant flowers and plants in a women’s ward, and as requested by the hospital, breast feeding and birthing positions in a maternity ward.

On my return to London in April 2005 I have been employed as a freelance artist, by an organisation called Art Start, where I have worked with two other artists, along with groups of children, to paint murals in a Nursery and Junior School playground. During 2005 in London I took on commissions to paint children's bedrooms. I then returned again to South Africa for a year and continued to work as a volunteer artist at the Bulungula Lodge, Eastern Cape painting murals and furniture.

In 2007 I returned to London and have project managed house refurbishments, worked as a painter and decorator and have taken on painting commissions.


References

Cuckoo Hall Primary school

To Whom It May Concern

Re: Sarah Hubert

I write in response to a reference request for Sarah Hubert. Sarah worked with us at Cuckoo Hall as a temporary artist in residence during this summer term.

Sarah has been integrally involved in the transformation of our playground from a barren, uninspiring place to learn and play into a vivid, exciting space. Sarah initially worked with small groups of older primary aged children and Year 7 secondary pupils. Sarah managed and inspired challenging children extremely well, and was always willing to share her previous experiences in order to further develop our own children and staff’s knowledge and skills. By the end of her working period here she had built very successful relationships with the children, and through her structured and caring approach she showed excellent behaviour management skills.

Sarah has many strengths, one being a very firm commitment towards children’s learning and their well-being. She was always willing to consult with colleagues to further develop her knowledge, skills and understanding of the children she worked with, and during her time here she showed the ability to provide effective professional support others.

Objective observations of the art work Sarah planned and produced have been extremely positive. The impact of her efforts at Cuckoo Hall has been far reaching and has elicited extremely positive comments from parents and the wider community about the pride they feel about our improved surroundings.

I have no hesitation in recommending Sarah as a colleague as well as an expert in her field. She is both pleasant and reliable and developed very good relationships throughout the school. I was very sorry that Sarah’s time here was not prolonged and I look forward to the opportunity to work alongside her again.

Sarah Oliver
Deputy Headteacher

Bulungula Lodge

To whom it may concern

Reference for Sarah Hubert

Writing a reference for Sarah Hubert is rather easy as I merely have to scan the dictionary and list all the superlative adjectives.

Here at Bulungula Lodge, Sarah took grey cement walls and transformed them into a visual spectacle which has become one of the major draw cards for our international guests. Sarah works hard and fast all day and never seems to run out of ideas even though her canvas was almost endless: in total she painted murals on the walls of more than 18 rooms as well as large sections of exterior walls. Many of these rooms required considerably different styles as the environments varied from shower blocks to living rooms, toilets to bedrooms, restaurant to kitchens. Amazingly each of these rooms now has its own individual feel created by her excellent sense of colour and appropriate palates.

In addition, Sarah has superb people skills which allowed her to work closely with rural African women, who couldn’t speak a word of English and had never painted before in their lives, without a hiccup. She also works very well with children of all ages.

I have no hesitation in recommending Sarah for any mural project. To put it simply: Sarah transforms ugly or dull places, into BEAUTIFUL spaces.

David Martin
Owner
Bulungula Lodge