I must mention enrolment evenings for the classes, as it is very different now when we all communicate so much via the internet and everyone appears to be too busy to meet in the flesh so to speak.
Enrolment evening was where school desks were set up in the main hall of the school. Each tutor enrolled his own students; we were each allocated a desk with forms and anything you had by way of promotion material.
The Centre manager strutted rather pompously around to check if we were all ready and with a great gesture, swept open the doors and with a rush the people spilled ‘willy-nilly’ out into the hall to find there specialist subject and get first in the queue. I don’t know why, but I have a picture in my head of Mr Bean and his hesitant peering gait charging through the crowd as in the episode of him at the January sales.
Lines of eager faces waited patiently for the popular courses while other less popular subjects, the tutors sat morosely, twiddling their thumbs idly.
Pottery was universally popular and Mike was kept busy all evening signing up for his classes. In one way, I was hoping no one would sign up for painting, but on the other hand it would be very humiliating not having enough to start the class, plus I needed the money.
Again, naively I had assumed a whole lot about my students, they would be very knowledgeable and want to delve into discussions on the relative importance of Dada in the post Pop Art era, or how Leonardo Da Vinci managed to transfer his cartoons to the plaster walls of a church or chapel. Most however, asked very, what I thought were mundane questions on what materials they needed, what colour is the sea and could they paint their pet dog. They knew nothing about grades of pencil, what was the difference between watercolour and gouache and crucially, what to bring to the first class? I tried to answer their questions and mentally had to turn somersaults to re-plan the whole of the first terms work. None of these rather hesitant unsure students I was enrolling new much at all about paint and materials to work with and in some cases had rather grandiose ideas of painting mountains, lakes and romantic scenes like Constable or Turner in their first term! I would have to bring down their expectations and focus on simpler colour exercises and help them with drawing objects. How was I to make these basic techniques exciting and challenging without them feeling they were back at school again? I had been fully prepared for teaching at A level or above, but this was wholly out of the question and I would have to try developing a step by step approach that was totally alien to my experience of art school teaching. It took me awhile and I do feel sorry for those first intrepid students who I took under my wing. I am not sure how much they could have learnt or whether they ever continued to develop their skills, I am afraid I have my doubts. One thing that I did discover about myself was that I began to really appreciate what I knew and had experienced and this gave me confidence and I learned to be more considerate of others, less dwelling on my own inadequacies. I still have a great passion for teaching and the passing on of knowledge; finding ways to encourage and challenge learners to break out and not be afraid of taking on new ideas, braving the unusual, encouraging personal development is a very satisfying and life affirming thing.
Extracts from Journal
March 11th 1980
The snowdrops are in their full glory now and primroses are on the move. Soon it will be daffodil time: it’s the yellow season
March 12th
It seems I need to be removed or away from a subject in order to paint it, only then does it have meaning for me
April 12th
Primroses, cowslips now in flower, there are dandelions and daffodils dotted through the garden under the trees also there is the eager activity of sparrows and their new broods while bright green just showing on the beeches, hawthorn’s ready to emerge.
Next blog “The Lodger” (My experiences of coming to live at Greendene)
Bobs Blog 