LO1. Formulate, describe and implement a challenging and self-directed programme of study, relating to your Study Statement. (AC Enquiry)
The primary consideration when formulating my programme of study was how to remain faithful and truthful to the creative process and intuition when drawing and painting. I have placed discovery, materials, and experimentation at the very centre of it, with an openness to accidents happening, tangents colliding and ideas evolving. Through this approach, my intention is to strengthen my practice as both an artist, but also as educator, with a dialogue kept open between these two (distinct yet intrinsically connected) roles.
I have formulated and described my self-directed programme of study in my study statement below:
There are some key points of context that have helped formulate my programme of study:
1: The work I began making in early 2022 for a joint exhibition planned for October 2022 signalled the beginning of working in a process led way. This pre dates being on the course, but was around the same time as I was applying. I had recently devised a series of workshop plans for schools that explored Macbeth through visual art. The aim of these was to give UKS2 children the opportunity to explore the themes and imagery of Shakespeare in a creative and accessible way. Through devising these sessions, I began to think more closely about process, experimentation and creative freedom. This led me to want to produce and exhibit a body of work that showed this. I felt almost like a conversation between the two things.
My reflections on the exhibition helped me to identify the paths that had opened up:
The work I made during this time evolved thematically, from the 3 witches in Macbeth, to looking more widely at the experience of women living through entrapment and escape in historic fiction, and in traditional motherhood roles. This then evolved into looking at stone circles and ancient sites. These ideas are still with me and continue to circulate - but wanting to test out how ideas and process work together, I have been working predominantly on experiments rather than final pieces since then. My tutorials with Jonathan have helped orientate this.
2: My tutorials with Jonathan raised challenges and distilled direction for me. Assuming my described study statement is a working document, I am yet to know if I have cast the net too wide but remain open to this possibility. At this point though, truly following the creative journey is the core aim, so I need to feel my way through in order to stay true to it.
Tutorial 2nd November 2022: https://www.rachelt.co.uk/post/tutorial-2-11-22
Tutorial 30th January 2023: https://www.rachelt.co.uk/post/tutorial-30-1-2023
3: The way in which South African artist William Kentridge draws and paints is a central inspiration to me. I had already begun my journey with process prior to seeing his work in September 2022, but I consider the encounter with it as critical to forming my programme of study.
I have written about seeing his work in London below:
I show how adopting some of his processes enabled me to connect more deeply with drawing intuitively and with expression in LO2.
4: My work with AccessArt since 2017 keeps me well informed with the challenges faced by primary schools. It has made me reflect on how limited opportunity there is for children to experience non linear learning and how destructive this can be. At the same time, it highlights the benefits that high quality art teaching can bring.
The experience I have gained running regular CPD sessions for teachers over the last two years has helped me formulate my direction of study, and to define ways to implement it. Through practicing the methods I am advocating (creative journey, no pre defined outcome) I am able to advocate for the importance of creative curriculums in schools.
The following are not blog posts made during this course, but are art lesson resources I have made that I consider to be influential in leading me to this course and ultimately shaping my programme of study:
LO2. Implement appropriate working methods for building an independent and effective self-organisation that enables the critical engagement with practice-based research. (AC Process)
I have been working predominantly through a period of experimentation, creating works in progress, using layers of materials (watercolour, ink, charcoal, pastels) - set against the backdrop of work I have seen, reading I have done, and educational facilitation, all of which places the experiments within context and enables me to critically reflect on it. The following posts are not necessarily in chronological order, but are there to chart how my ideas and processes collide and weave.
William Kentridge and his philosophy on drawing in particular has shaped a lot of my practice based research:
Using charcoal and working in large scale:
Still looking at Kentridge, I engage with the tension between accident and intention:
https://www.rachelt.co.uk/post/deliberate-accidents-with-ink (added to Jan 2023)
Exploring to what extent 'pinning down' marks in pencil impacts the way a piece develops:
From a thematic perspective, the Feminine Power and Stonehenge exhibitions at The British Museum have given me plenty of starter ideas and images from which to work from:
Here, I used imagery, tone, form, colours and textures to explore inspirations from these two influential exhibitions:
Here, I shift away from mark making and identify that I want to keep developing technical skills in figurative drawing, but that striking a balance between that and more abstract work remains important:
Looking at simple line in life drawing led me to Joseph Beuys:
Wanting to develop how drawing can be used to communicate profound emotion, I am currently looking at Kathe Kollwitz. I'm in the early stages of looking at her work, but have ideas for some drawings that depict the experience of motherhood.
The following posts illustrate the connection between some watercolour experiments and how this informed a teacher CPD session. An example of how accidents with materials can enrich our creative experience and how my two practices as artist and educator collide:
3. Communicate a critical understanding of your developing practice. (AC Knowledge, AC Communication)
A key consideration for me now, and I anticipate it remaining so, is staying in this experimental phase, but not ignoring or rejecting ideas that may form. A potential barrier to this, will be how to retain this fluidity, whilst having time sensitive commitments such as exhibitions to honour.
At the time, I'm still developing how to actually reflect and critically examine my practice and there's lots of questions I still don't know the answer to.
The following post attempts to engage with 'reflection in action'. Here, I'm trying to be truly present when reflecting and not just recounting:
A challenge set early on in the course by Jonathan helped me to tune into the process of reflection. These circle experiments came at the end of what was a genuine journey through ideas and accidents:
It's become clear to me that Kentridge's work and ideas are now a central influence on my practice. Hearing him speak in interviews has given me valuable insight into the process of reflection:
My end of first term reflections (Dec 2022) came at a point of struggle, where I was continuing to encounter the 'tension' between ideas, process and outcome. I think this will remain a challenge for me, but that's ok.