At the end of June, we were delighted to be joined by a number of Work Experience students at City & Guilds of London Art School. As part of the experience, the students were invited to write blog posts documenting their time at the Art School.
Read below about their experience visiting Tate Britain.
“We visited the Tate Britain and saw many paintings and sculptures. We really enjoyed the room ‘A Room of One’s Own’. You could see the oil paint in the paintings; the layering of paint and the surface varying from flat and smooth, to thick layers. In this room, we explored new representations of female identity. It showed us the changing relationships between men and women in society. We also visited the room with the artists Francis Bacon and Henry Moore. A lot of us really enjoyed the Henry Moore sculptures since they were quite abstract and not something we had been exposed to before, which really drew our eyes towards them. Back in the studio, we learned how to use oil paint since we weren’t all used to using it, and a few of us just did drawings in pencil. We either replicated a painting or sculpture we liked in Tate Britain or came up with our own ideas. We started adding oil pastels to our work to make our drawings and paintings more dramatic and add texture to them.” Elijah
“We visited Tate Britain on the second day of our work experience. It was great to see some of the contemporary arts, but the paintings that caught my attention the most were the ones in the historical part of the gallery. The paintings by Philip Wilson really were really interesting, not only because of the concepts but also because of his painting technique of having very visible brushstrokes in the painting. I used this technique for my painting in the afternoon.” Isabella
“On today’s trip for work experience, we visited the Tate Britain which I enjoyed, as we saw various works; sculptures, paintings, abstract and realism. I enjoyed seeing the nineteenth century paintings, most of which I think were from the aestheticism movement as they were meticulously detailed and captured lighting incredibly well. We then returned to the studio where I spent a few hours on an acrylic painting. I found it quite tricky, since acrylic is new to me, but I learned some useful tips from Hope about canvas priming and using it as a translucent wash. I also enjoyed that the group was small, since it felt more friendly and connected with the others.” Adrianna
“We visited the Tate Britain and we saw a vast variety of pieces ranging in material and style, such as surrealist paintings and statues and paintings from the Renaissance. A notable work for me was a statue by Frederic Leighton – An Athlete Wrestling with a Python (1877). Another was from the room ‘A Room of One’s Own’ at Tate Britain: Philip Wilson Steer’s ‘Seated Nude: The Black Hat’ (1900). Both pieces left a strong impression on me. I was inspired by the dynamic shadows cast on Frederic’s statue, and I was immediately attracted to the silhouette of Phillip’s painting. I tried to be experimental with my work and use simple blocky shapes to communicate a more telling story, using the intense shadows from the statue (Leighton) and the figure’s silhouette (Steer, and from Herbert Draper’s ‘The Lament for Icarus’). I took one figure from Herbert’s work and one from Steer’s.” Jazz
“We spent the day visiting Tate Britain and sketching the work there. It was interesting to talk as a group about specific artworks. Personally, my favourite work we saw was ‘The Mirror’. I enjoyed challenging myself by attempting acrylic painting, and working in the studios was pretty cool. It was a really interesting day and I’m looking forward to next week.” Joseph
