Education Live-in artists
involvement in art fi nished around Year 9. Textile artist Beth Nicholas’ design workshops not only encouraged participation throughout the school but her sessions on designing and making clothes using recycled materials led to the sixth form putting on a fashion show of up-cycled clothing. Wellington College is equally committed to involving as many pupils as possible in the arts. T eir recently established television and radio stations have inspired pupils, regardless of the subjects they are studying. “We believe in arts for everyone,” says director of art, Laurence Hedges. “It’s really important that every pupil has the opportunity to get involved in the arts at whatever level, and that any school that has an arts provision demonstrates breadth and inclusivity.” An artist in residence can help a school achieve this goal.
Ceramics at Clifton High School
The genius of the uninhibited child
Portrait painter Rupert Bathurst talks about one of the two terms of artist in residency he completed at Bedales
Misquoting horribly, I think it was Picasso who once said that he spent the fi rst part of his life trying to learn how to paint like a Grown Up, and the rest trying to remember how to paint like a Child. As a practising artist, standing at a midlife
crossroads, and trying to follow this path myself, I believe that every child has a primal, instinctive and unique way of communicating through image, which can slowly become inhibited and cowed by peer pressure and unhelpful direction in the classroom. As a regular in life-drawing classes, where many
techniques are used to break down the ability to control or censure the journey from observation to mark making, I have conducted a few workshops, for old experts and young children alike, which employ a set of exercises whose sole intention is to unlock that childlike surety and wonder. It was with this intention
that I gladly accepted the invitation from Dunhurst, Bedales’ prep school last year to become artist in residence for two one-week visits. T e fi rst week, last March, was extraordinary: fi ve
gifted students, chosen for their passion for art, were lifted out of the curriculum and were mine all day for a whole week of art workshops. I had a box of tricks up my sleeve, gleaned also from
teaching a regular art club slot at my children’s school, that was well proven for a two-hour workshop…but it was new territory to stay ahead of fi ve inquisitive students for fi ve long intensive days. Large pieces of card were taped to the table in
front of each of the students. A life model was then introduced, and the pose chosen by the team, to illustrate one of a series of emotions. A frantic fl urry of activity then ensued: standing
Five gifted
students, chosen for their passion for art, all lifted out of the curriculum were all mine for a week
on stools, holding the end of long bamboo sticks with charcoal taped to the far end, or chalks in the mouth, fi sts with rough ink brushes in the wrong hand – two- minute bursts, a variety of media, inks, heavy acrylic paints, coloured chalks and charcoal – and all the while being barked at by me! But the most important exercise was that
with each two-minute burst, the student had to move on to the next door picture, and then on to the next, until each artist had contributed to every piece of work. T e result of this was that ego, individual competitive judgments, all sense of ownership and any negative comparisons with neighbours were not given oxygen to cloud the intuitive fun
of responding directly to the model. Observing and recording fast, without thought, self-criticism or worry. As a starting exercise, this then mutated into longer
projects but always with the same intention: a group artist, with fi ve voices all adding diff erent notes to an ensemble piece of work. A powerful, inspiring week for me, where over 80 pieces
Work by Rupert’s Dunhurst pupils
were created, the best curated by the “group artist”, were hung in the entrance hall. Works which demonstrated grown-up observation technique impassioned and infused by the genius of the uninhibited child.
42 FirstEleven Autumn 2011
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk
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