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W.W.B.R.D* - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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W.W.B.R.D*

There’s a certain skill, and probably temperament required to practice Fine Art. Sadly, I have big blacksmith’s hands, more at home catching a rugby ball than sketching, drawing, or sculpting.
Nowhere was this seen more widely than recently when I attempted to make Christmas decorations out of felt. Cutting felt, no problem, sewing bits of felt together happened but not well, and with several expletives when I stabbed myself with a needle.
After rage-quitting I saw all my colleagues do a much better job than me, creating some amazing pieces that I couldn’t help but appreciate.
The principle behind Fine Art, as opposed to other distinctions which at least think about purpose, is that it is art created for the purpose of how it looks, and how it makes you think. It’s like a fine wine, or a glass of single malt whisky, you sip and savour all the wonderful flavours coming through.
It’s something to take your time over, both in appreciating it, and developing your own art. Because, Fine Art is experimentation, how far can you push something, how far can you take it until it meets what you want it to do. It’s only through experimentation and trying new things and combinations that you’ll get there.
All this talk of fine wines and so on sounds expensive, but that’s the thing, OCA courses are around a third what you would pay at a campus university, and just one of the ways we put access to education at the heart of our teaching.
Fine Art is one of the few places that you can do Sculpture at OCA, so if you like the idea of developing great pieces of work, this could be the place for you.
If you’re not confident in some of your skills, you’ll develop all that through Drawing, painting, and exploring different media.
Along the way, you might find some things out about yourself, and discover a style that is intrinsically yours.
Just remember, don’t stab yourself with a needle and rage-quit, “stick at it.” Get it? Yes? No? I guess that’s me done.
This has been our tenth day of #accessoca, join us again tomorrow.
*What would Bob Ross Do

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Posted by author: Craig Dewis

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