Artistic Experience

On Sunday we undertook a totally new type of fundraising, in the form of a charity Art Class. Having spent the best part of the Lent Term organising the fundraiser, seeing it all culminate in the fantastic pieces produced by the participants was a joy in itself. We had 14 people in total who came to do the class, which ran from 10 am until 5.30 pm, covering landscape painting and the ancient art of Raku firing.

In the morning, half the group did Raku while the other half did Landscape painting. The painters had a red canvas to work on, and under Mr Bournon’s expert tutelage they accomplished some fantastic pieces. The red canvas was chosen as the red is complementary to the greens which were to be used for the painting, and this technique gave a depth and vividness to the finished pieces. Mr Bournon interspersed the session with three mini lectures on colour, composition and technique, which were greatly appreciated by all who attended.

While the landscape class was running, the other half sat down to undertake ceramics with Mr Wheeldon. Each participant was given a tile to work on, and applied layers of slip and glaze before engraving a design to the central panel. These tiles were then taken outside to be fired and smoked, and the participants looked on as their designs appeared on the tiles, seemingly engraved in smoke.

During the lunch break I had chance to chat with some of the participants, who all seemed to reflect on how great it was to get into the Art School and see all it has to offer. One parent said that she was glad to have the opportunity to receive some of the teaching that her daughter has been experiencing at Repton.

The afternoon saw the groups swapping over, and after three more hours of painting, firing and enough coffee to drown an army, the groups left the Repton Art School with a Raku fired tile and a painting to put Constable to shame. I loved to see all of the planning come together to produce what was a very successful day, raising a net total of £840 for Help for Heroes.

Katy Strong (U6G)