Never Too Late
it's Never Too Late
It may be forty years ago that I had thought of going to art school but it's never too late!
In January 2016 my mother died aged 97 and after having had her ashes in a box under my dining room table for five months because none of my five siblings could decide what to do with them, I had an idea. I would take them on a road trip in Gloria my little Ford KA streetcar. I would take her and scatter her ashes in beautiful places around the entire coast of Great Britain and try to do it in 80 days.
I did the trip starting on May 1st 2016 going from my home in Eastbourne and along the south coast towards the East coast of England. I blogged the journey as I scattered my mum's ashes in places important to her as well as looking for the most beautiful places on the edge of this island of ours. I named the blog: ontheedgearoundthecoast.
While I was on the West Coast of Scotland I stayed in Ullapool in an Airbnb house where the owner had some wonderful art on the walls. I assumed they were his work but he told me they had been painted by a friend who was at Bridge House Arts, an art school in the town. My having shown an interest prompted my host to mention the art school several times during my short stay. He kept on about it even though I told him I was travelling and not really interested in his suggestion that I enrol on a Summer School week or even do a one day workshop.
However as I travelled down the West Coast and onto the coast of Wales and Cornwall, it stayed with me so I looked it up as soon as I got home.
Bridge House is the home of Eleanor and Peter White, respected Scottish artists and every winter they offer a 16 week Portfolio Course. It starts in October, has a short break at Christmas and restarts in January. It culminates in an exhibition of students work at the tail end of February and the first few days of March.
They take just twelve students a year and these participants come from all sorts of different background and experience. . Some are young people planning on going on to apply to study Art at University and others are people wanting a sabbatical.
I applied and was called to interview in March 2017 in time to meet the current students and see their Exhibition.
This posed my first problem. They asked to see current work- portfolios and sketchbooks. I am not an A level student. I didn't have any. I did have photos of some of the crafts I sell and some photos of murals I have painted on walls and I started with those. My beloved number one daughter suggested doing some exercises that she knew constituted a sketchbook and also recommended a US website designed to take primary school aged students through a history of art course.
On March 3rd this year I flew to Inverness, hired a car and turned up at the art studios for my interview with two of the tutors. Unsurprisingly their first question was "Why Ullapool rather than Brighton?"
Surprisingly my reaction was to burst into noisy tears! The tutor didn't turn a hair. She simply told me that whilst working in Australia in the past, she'd come across an Aboriginal saying that when your feet touch earth that your soul remembers, the roots go deep. She said "I think you've been here before. " My very emotional reaction suggested she may be right.
At the end of my interview they said that since I was in the last cohort of interviewees I would hear by 5pm that same day whether they were offering me a place.
5 o'clock came and went. 7 and 9 o'clock and still I heard nothing.
I was so disappointed.
The following day I looked round the exhibition and talked to the current students hoping I'd hear at this late stage, but nothing.
That evening back in Inverness Airport waiting for my flight home, I got a text.
" Michaele, we can't let yourvleave Scotland without letting you know that we would like to offer you one of the twelve places starting October 2017."
Today is 22nd October 2017 and my first day is tomorrow at 9.30am.
I am aware that this whole experience is far more than a simple art course but I have waited forty years already. What's one more day?
It may be forty years ago that I had thought of going to art school but it's never too late!
In January 2016 my mother died aged 97 and after having had her ashes in a box under my dining room table for five months because none of my five siblings could decide what to do with them, I had an idea. I would take them on a road trip in Gloria my little Ford KA streetcar. I would take her and scatter her ashes in beautiful places around the entire coast of Great Britain and try to do it in 80 days.
I did the trip starting on May 1st 2016 going from my home in Eastbourne and along the south coast towards the East coast of England. I blogged the journey as I scattered my mum's ashes in places important to her as well as looking for the most beautiful places on the edge of this island of ours. I named the blog: ontheedgearoundthecoast.
While I was on the West Coast of Scotland I stayed in Ullapool in an Airbnb house where the owner had some wonderful art on the walls. I assumed they were his work but he told me they had been painted by a friend who was at Bridge House Arts, an art school in the town. My having shown an interest prompted my host to mention the art school several times during my short stay. He kept on about it even though I told him I was travelling and not really interested in his suggestion that I enrol on a Summer School week or even do a one day workshop.
However as I travelled down the West Coast and onto the coast of Wales and Cornwall, it stayed with me so I looked it up as soon as I got home.
Bridge House is the home of Eleanor and Peter White, respected Scottish artists and every winter they offer a 16 week Portfolio Course. It starts in October, has a short break at Christmas and restarts in January. It culminates in an exhibition of students work at the tail end of February and the first few days of March.
They take just twelve students a year and these participants come from all sorts of different background and experience. . Some are young people planning on going on to apply to study Art at University and others are people wanting a sabbatical.
I applied and was called to interview in March 2017 in time to meet the current students and see their Exhibition.
This posed my first problem. They asked to see current work- portfolios and sketchbooks. I am not an A level student. I didn't have any. I did have photos of some of the crafts I sell and some photos of murals I have painted on walls and I started with those. My beloved number one daughter suggested doing some exercises that she knew constituted a sketchbook and also recommended a US website designed to take primary school aged students through a history of art course.
On March 3rd this year I flew to Inverness, hired a car and turned up at the art studios for my interview with two of the tutors. Unsurprisingly their first question was "Why Ullapool rather than Brighton?"
Surprisingly my reaction was to burst into noisy tears! The tutor didn't turn a hair. She simply told me that whilst working in Australia in the past, she'd come across an Aboriginal saying that when your feet touch earth that your soul remembers, the roots go deep. She said "I think you've been here before. " My very emotional reaction suggested she may be right.
At the end of my interview they said that since I was in the last cohort of interviewees I would hear by 5pm that same day whether they were offering me a place.
5 o'clock came and went. 7 and 9 o'clock and still I heard nothing.
I was so disappointed.
The following day I looked round the exhibition and talked to the current students hoping I'd hear at this late stage, but nothing.
That evening back in Inverness Airport waiting for my flight home, I got a text.
" Michaele, we can't let yourvleave Scotland without letting you know that we would like to offer you one of the twelve places starting October 2017."
Today is 22nd October 2017 and my first day is tomorrow at 9.30am.
I am aware that this whole experience is far more than a simple art course but I have waited forty years already. What's one more day?
I'm so excited for you. Have a wonderful, wonderful four months!
ReplyDeleteYou will love and blossom in Ullapool!
ReplyDelete