From the 14th to the 17th of October, a handful of art students across both the L6 and the U6 visited St Ives in Cornwall, where we explored the rich culture of the seaside town and attended the St Ives School of Painting.

St Ives has attracted the attention of artists for many decades due to the quality of the clean Cornish light. In the 1920s, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood visited St Ives, where they discovered the work of painter Alfred Wallis - a self taught painter who drew on scraps of driftwood after the passing of his wife. Wallis’ naive style was greatly championed by Nicholson who recognised Wallis as breaking from the confines of taught art. At the outbreak of WW2, Nicholson and his wife, Barbara Hepworth, moved to St Ives and pioneered the transformation of the town into a hub for modern art.

Upon arrival, the Sixth Form were treated to a ghost tour of the town by local resident, Shanty Baba, who led us on an exciting night journey through the winding paths of the town, and familiarised us with the darker history of St Ives. We had the opportunity of going to Tate St Ives and made quick studies of various collections inside, many of us were fascinated by Ad Minoluti’s exhibition. The visit finished off with some hot chocolate while enjoying the fantastic view of the seaside from the Tate.

We then spent the following two days at the St Ives School of Painting, where we gained valuable insight into exploration of our art from different perspectives and acquired many new skills along the way. We were taken to the beach and several picturesque spots around the town to sketch in situ, experimenting with charcoal and gouache paint, focusing on connecting with nature and capturing the very feel of being part of the landscape - experiencing the wind and rain in the moment. The culmination of our time in the painting school was an A3 semi-abstract painting, combining acrylic, gouache and charcoal, which was a larger study of one of our paintings we’d done outside.

On our final day, we visited the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, where we spent time sketching not only her sculptures but also their surroundings. Nature was a prominent feature of St Ives, where so many artists greatly valued their connection with the natural world and created their works as part of it. Other highlights of the trip included a trip to the cinema, a pizza night and lunch on the beach. Overall, the Sixth form had an amazing trip, where we learned valuable skill sets that we will be able to utilise as we continue to work hard on our A level.

By Sunny and Maddie (L6)