Art in Action is an extraordinary event. It’s a 4-day celebration of the arts and crafts held every July in the grounds of Waterperry House, somewhere near Oxford, and attracts some 25,000 visitors. Marquees house displays of paintings, sculptures, woodwork, textiles, ceramics, metalwork, glass and jewellery. 400 top artists, designer makers, musicians and performers...
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A few observations as both an OCA director and a student on Drawing 1…..
First, as a student: My first observation would be – drawing is hard work! I guess it’s not surprising – looking, seeing, selecting and translating what is out there (3D and, disconcertingly, sometimes moving) into static 2D requires a great deal...
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Take a piece of card — matt surface, not glossy. Wet it thoroughly. Then lay down a line into the wet with the side of a chalk pastel – and watch what happens!
These were the instructions given by OCA tutor, Stephen Court, at his workshop on Pastels and Mixed Media at...
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Last week, we announced the launch of two new degrees – BA (Hons) Photography and BA (Hons) Painting. Together with our existing BA (Hons) Creative Arts, these degrees are unique. As far as we are aware, no other distance-learning creative arts, photography or painting degrees exist anywhere in the world!
Preparations started...
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At the risk of sounding Yorkshire-centric, I highly recommend a visit to two exhibitions – one called “Code: Craft”, a display of stunning visual digital art at the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield, and the other, an exhibition of the equally stunning sculpture and drawings of Peter Randall Page at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
On the...
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I’m half way through my first OCA course, Start Drawing. On page 17, there’s a question about the artist Ben Nicholson – “Why did he simplify still life forms and negative space and superimpose them on the Cornish landscape?” Good question. I didn’t know but knew at once that I...
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