Dulwich Library was hosting the South London Women Artists’ exhibition and pupils were lucky enough to be able to talk with some of the exhibiting artists and to see their working sketchbooks.  This proved an invaluable and interesting experience for the group of Year 11 GCSE Art pupils.  We were introduced to varied methods of making sketchbooks, be they as collections of contextual evidence, working drawings or highly personalised visual diaries.  Making the links between the work journals at GCSE and the work the artists were making encouraged the pupils to see different methods of developing ideas.   We saw this come to fruition in the exhibition itself where pupils made tonal and linear responses to the works on display.

It was a very privileged experience – one rarely has the chance to see the very personal development of ideas and pupils were very grateful indeed to Jane, Liz, Leonie and Jenny for giving them this insight.

S.Payne
Head of Art