It is becoming increasingly hard to keep track of all the things OCA students are doing, with growing numbers blogging their learning logs, setting up informal meetings, etc, but this is something special. Student Penny Rowe has got together with fellow students to launch an online exhibition. Called ‘Untitled’, it is just fabulous, take...
In the competitive and fast moving world of art exhibitions and artistic reputations, it is easy to get ignored or forgotten. A number of belated biographies were published last year that bring to the public’s attention some of these artists: Alasdair Grey (b.1934) is a Scottish artist who along with John Byrne (b.1940) made...
There’s an Edward Burra Retrospective at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester West Sussex at the moment. One of the first times I encountered the late work of Edward Burra was at the huge exhibition of British Painting at the Hayward Gallery in 1974. I had managed to attend the Private View as a result...
Bonne Année!. Here is my 2012 New Year Quiz! (I haven’t pulled any crackers this year, so you’ll have to indulge me…) Q: From the images included in this article, choose which is a) Art b) Vandalism Did you guess right?! Check out the answers below! A few years ago, there was a new...
Walking into the Elizabeth Blackadder exhibition at the Edinburgh National Gallery I had the feeling that I had walked into the ultimate level 1 drawing submission. For those of you who know the courses, there was a view from one space to another, view through a window, landscape, still life with natural and man-made...
As we all know, the web provides a great array of wonderful stuff, but it is a challenge to sift the good from the indifferent and downright bad. But now an initiative based on a philosophy of collaboration in the arts community is beginning to bear fruit. Chris Follows, of the University of the...
The much publicized Hockney exhibition: A Bigger Picture, has arrived and we couldn’t let it go without having a study day. Since it will be so popular we have chosen to visit it during the week. The visit is planned for Tuesday 14 February, starting at 11am. Joining us on the trip will be...
This is the second time we have highlighted Fran Clark’s blog: its just too good to ignore. Fran is doing the level one Drawing Skills course but her reflections, and the way she goes about documenting them, are outstanding. Just look at what she has written for her assignment five work. Fran tells us...
….. and a loss to art. Ian Simpson, born in 1933, has died. Jim Cowan, long time OCA tutor, who knew and worked with Ian, writes: Many OCA students will know Ian Simpson’s book ‘Drawing, Seeing and Observation’ which has become a standard text. Ian was a great believer in disseminating knowledge and as...
Kerguéhennec. It’s taken me three weeks to be able to say it. Now ‘la tempête’ has passed, the sky is a sullen unbroken pewter and I should be shopping for chocolate santas… What better time to check out this hidden gem of contemporary sculpture in the heart of southern Brittany. I’m beginning to realize...
19th November 2011. A beautiful bright day; OCA students, Heather, Nigel, Lucille, Michael, Christine, Sarah and I met up at the Baltic to socialise and view the Turner Prize Exhibition. It was great that there was an instant rapport in the group with everyone clearly eager to exchange experiences to date with the OCA. ...
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