My self-curated fine art degree
Two years ago I set out to self-curate my own fine art degree. After wrapping up a 34 year career in the design sector, I wanted to go back to my art school roots and reconnect with the personal creativity that had inspired me as a teenager.
I began exploring a full-time degree within the HE system as a mature student, but quickly realised that the investment required was very unlikely to live up to my expectations. I was lucky enough to go to Bourneville School of Art, Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in the 1980s/1990s and know that I benefited from some of the very best that an art school education had to offer. Soon to be 60, I wasn’t in need of another qualification, but was hungry for new knowledge about different disciplines, techniques and materials. I wanted to know about the craft behind the art and felt sure that, while I was learning, I would find my own path to a new creative destination.
I didn’t know what I wanted to focus on: drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, sculpture, mixed media, but I wanted to experience them all again to refresh my memory and rekindle my own creative spark. Decades of relentless work with demanding clients and employees had left me running on empty. It was the promise of ‘a more creative life’ that had kept me going through the pandemic and the last few years of my professional career while I negotiated my exit.
For many years, I have studied life drawing with the artist Niel Bally in Wales at his beautiful studio and home in the Brecon Beacons. Two to three times a year, I would join a group of about 8-10 other artists, some amateur, others very experienced, and Niel would share his deep love and knowledge of painting and drawing from the model. I have slowly improved, one drawing at a time, under Niel’s expert and patient tuition. Driving to Wales felt like a lifeline to my true self, and for many years, this was my only creative activity as the pressures of work and parenting were all-consuming. Niel and his wife Sue kept my creative ambition alive, and slowly the dream of pursuing art full-time began to emerge.
More recently, Instagram had shown me that there are many other skilled artists with their own well-established professional practice who share their knowledge through occasional workshops and courses. There is a surplus of online courses that have emerged more recently. A small number of creative entrepreneurs have established businesses and venues to host creative retreats and welcome tutors and participants from all over the world. The opportunities are endless.
In October 2024, I started my self-curated fine art degree in earnest. I committed to spend the same as a three-year, full-time degree at an HE institution would have cost (roughly £30,000) but selected the tutors and courses that interested me most and treated any travel as part of the broader learning experience.
Over the past two years I have attended the following courses:
Life drawing in Arezzo Italy with Martin Campos - a 6 day retreat organised by Art Escapes Italy
Drawing the Figure in Motion at the Royal Academy - a 2 day course
Life drawing with Heatherley School of Art in London - regular drop in sessions on Friday
An introduction to Printmaking at Leamington College - a 10 week evening course
Abstract Landscape with Anita Reynolds at Newlyn School of Art - a 3 day course
Expressive Landscape with Luke Knight at Newlyn School of Art - a 4 day course
Collograph print making with Jenny McCabe at Phoenix Studios - a 2 day course
Botanical printing with Su France at Harriman & Co - a 1 day course
Mixed Media at West Dean in Sussex - a 4 day course
Landscape painting with Helen Simms - a 1 day course
Enamelling with Jessica Turrell at West Dean Sussex - a 3 day course
Monoprinting and embossing with Caroline Wendling at West Dean, London - 2 day courses
Creative textiles with Matthew Harris at Court House Farm - a 4 day course
Embroidery with Richard McVetis, London - a 2 day course
Alongside regular drawing in person and online with the artists Niel Bally, Adele Wagstaff, Bethany Kohrt and Neil Moore.
I have one more year to go and lots of courses booked.