CHARLES WILLIAMS’S MUSINGS
Iteach painting in the fine art degree programme of which I am also programme director. As well as painting, students can study sculpture, printmaking or, unusually for a fine art degree, ceramics, and they choose to study just one of these subjects or a combination. It’s one of the reasons why it’s such a good course, and why I am so sad that it is now over; the authorities thought it too expensive so they have cut the fine art degree.
Painting is a difficult subject to teach. I envy my colleagues in ceramics and printmaking because their jobs are, in a way, much more straightforward. If the student does not understand the mysteries of glazing, or does not learn the techniques of etching, then the student has failed. Sculpture is a bit different, but there is still the fact that any object a sculptor might make remains in the real world; it stands up or falls down, people can bump into it. In painting, everything is up for grabs. It is a sort of twodimensional patch or space in the world that follows a set of rules unlike anything else around it. I realise that I am taking a risk by writing like this in this magazine, where people are looking for tips about how to paint ‘properly’, but bear with me.