Wednesday … Sybil Andrews the teacher.

Yesterday I had my first art class; the first since 1965.  I have always enjoyed art, painting, drawing; I even did a some pottery and sculpture at a class on Saturday mornings at Southampton Art College as a schoolgirl.  

However,it was not until now have I considered the theory of art,  when researching Sybil Andrews and indeed other artists who not only studied art at college and trained for years with eminent scholars of art; they went to teach art themselves.  

I don’t know why this was such a surprise to to me.   The works of great masters are not just aesthetically pleasing but the result  of much learning and continual practice, no less than a doctor, scientist, or a lawyer and should not be less valued in the world.

While I do not expect to reach such dizzy heights, I have learned to do some printing and discovered mighty print-makers who have made international notoriety including Sybil Andrews.  Famed for her lino-cuts of colour and action; she has written a book called the Artist’s Kitchen long out of print but I managed to borrow a copy from the Bodleian Library.  It was an inter-library loan to be read in the library so my use was a little curtailed.  Sybil says ‘ This book [published in 1985] has grown out of the years teaching my private art class, the problems of every kind which crop up in a group endeavoring to make pictures, or works of art, not copying, but attempting ideas and create their own pictures’.

I was a little disappointed that there were no images ‘ that she had done earlier’ that we have come to expect in our technological world and even then when ask why she hadn’t included illustrations of her own she replied ‘this is the kitchen where the ingredients of the cakes and pastries are assembled. This is not the display counter.

The Artist Kitchen is well stocked with useful ingredients.  Those able to have a copy of the book will find lots of ‘little gems which will enrich the art of living’

After reading it made me find someone who might put some meat on the bones while it will be a long journey but I am hoping a pleasant one.