Photography (only?) in the Exhibition

June 3, 2019

Let’s be clear: unlike the Process Portfolio, there are no requirements that students explore a range of media/processes in the Exhibition. A successful exhibition could consist of, say, ten artworks that all explore the same technique, or ten artworks that explore...

See Real Art: Visit an Art Gallery!

May 17, 2019

Student question:“It’s 2019. What is the point of looking at art that was made in 1520, five hundred years ago? How is that relevant to me?” We were at the Royal Academy (London) and looking at “Venus Rising from the Sea”, by Titian (1520) The Renaissance Nude...

Seven Questions about Starting to Teach the Course

May 6, 2019

In recent category 1 visual arts workshops I have been asked some great questions about our subject; for example, what to teach, how to balance the things we teach, how much time we should have to teach in, how to connect to other subjects, etc. Here are the questions...

COHERENCE? (‘Here is your theme. Stick to it for the next two years’)

April 22, 2019

Reconsider the theme: is it always a bad idea? There are many things wrong with these two sentences, as uttered by a visual arts teacher to one of his students. First of all, you don’t need to have a ‘theme’. Second, if you – the student – want a theme, it should NOT...

Questions about the Comparative Study

March 8, 2019

I have received some questions from students about the Comparative Study, mostly – but not all – about making connections to the students’ own art-making practice. The last one dropped in as a comment on a blog posted way back in February 2018 (from Antonella). Here...

Are You “Critical, Informed and Discerning”‘?

February 27, 2019

Great new art… Much new, contemporary and recent art is fantastic – intelligent, thought-provoking, sometimes perplexing and mysterious, frequently posing deep and/or unsettling questions. But of course, it’s not all fantastic. How could it be? Some of it is...