Art out of School
Castle Toward Art Course 2009
Three pupils at Hutchesons' gained places on an art course which takes place at Castle Toward every summer. Adam Henderson, Emma Fairlie and Eilidh McIntyre formed part of a large group of senior pupils from Glasgow Schools who spent a week focusing on a range of disciplines and approaches to design and fine art. The work was showcased in a recent exhibition at the Tramway in Glasgow.
Adam Henderson: During my summer holidays I took part in an art course organised by The Visual Arts Studio run by Glasgow City Council and based at The Tramway. The trip involved a number of senior students from schools in Glasgow travelling to Castle Toward in Dunoon, where we spent a week working on either animation, textiles, painting, body adornment or sculpture.
I chose to spend my week working on animation as we were encouraged to do something we were not used to doing, but had an interest in. We were taught how to use many different computer software systems and shown how to edit videos and install our own drawings and images to the programs.
Although a lot of work was involved it was still very enjoyable. Every night there was a social meeting and we were split into groups of eight or nine and given a variety of different tasks and challenges. This varied from building the tallest sculpture out of four pieces of bamboo, 10 sheets of news print and masking tape, to treasure hunts during which we had to collect 20 used socks, each member had to swap one shoe with another in their group and to make a daisy chain, ring and matching tiara.
Emma Fairley: When I attended the art course at Castle Toward in Dunoon, I decided to use the week to develop my painting skills. I had the choice between painting portraits, landscapes or still life, so I chose to do portraiture because it was a new, interesting area of painting to me. Over the week I developed ideas for a final painting and settled on self portraiture. I produced a sketchbook throughout the week and during the last few days I worked on my final pieces, producing two final paintings. I thoroughly enjoyed my time painting at Castle Toward.
