Boys doing AS-Level Art in Year 12 travelled down to Somerset to further their artistic studies.5th September to 7th September:

After leaving at 2:00 from school, the whole minibus was excited, the freedom, the good stories from the last years. We had much to look forward to.

Seven hours later, we arrived at our destination in Somerset – a camping barn on the top of a hill. This is my first point – this destination, if a little miserable when rainy, is exquisite. The exterior seems like an old farm barn, because that is what it is. The interior is made out of the most exquisite slabs of wood. The kitchen, if rather simplistic, is a great resource and leaves people more flexible than if they were to have a restaurant on-site. The sloping garden makes for one of the wettest I have played rugby on, however this may have something to do with the fact that there is a pond and a running stream through it. The space is wonderful and open – perfect for doing some large work.

On the Saturday morning, after getting up at 7.30 to help make sandwiches for the whole group, we departed, in the minibuses, for breakfast. After our filling Full English Breakfast, we made our way to the small seaside town of Watchet. I found this beach much more plentiful in terms of artwork. There were many more interesting textures (for example the smoothness of the stones juxtaposed against the roughness of some wood) and I found that the human structures (for example, the groynes and the tiles of the houses) were the main reason for this. Once we had been to the beach and then to the town, we went back to the beach again, after which we had a very nice dinner in a small café.
On the Saturday evening, the class did much large artwork (and some small!) back at the camping barn. As I said earlier – the large space lends itself wonderfully to this activity. There is even a massive space outside if you need to do some spray painting. I found this really liberating to be encouraged to do big work. I decided to look at corresponding wave patterns, then, when I created a negative space for that I likened it to cracks in rocks and investigated that further.
After a hard day’s work, we were treated to a traditional fire – not so easy in the rain! After which we just went to sleep. On Sunday, after packing, we boarded the minibus and went to eat our Full English again, after which we travelled to Kilve – a fantastic rocky beach of geological interest with strata of rocks and different land formations. Much good work could be done here involving the observation of the processes of nature – erosion, wave action, cracking and splitting of rock shale and overflowing water. The other main observation I made was about the boundaries and edges between layers and different natural surfaces and materials. Even what the tide brought in. I created a very temporary installation in the sand. The photos will be my best resource from Kilve. We then played a wonderful game of manhunt in a field of bamboo. This was our last goodbye to Somerset.