Painting and Drawing
Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts
awarded by the University of Sussex
1 academic year
Postgraduate Diploma - Painting and Drawing
awarded by the University of Sussex
1 academic year
MA Visual Arts
awarded by the University of Sussex
1 calendar year
MFA Master of Fine Art
awarded by the University of Sussex
2 academic year
Fine Art students can also now apply for a practice-led DPhil degree, to be jointly supervised by staff at the University of Sussex and West Dean College.
ENQUIRIES:
Telephone: +44 (0)1243 818208 or 811301
Email: diplomas@westdean.org.uk
Applying for these programmes?
Link to more information on our application process
Link to downloadable application and referees forms
Link to request or download a West Dean College prospectus
Develop advanced practical skills in making paintings and drawings (regarded generally as relatively flat supports of coloured or tonal arrangements of marks) as well as being introduced to philosophical considerations of the nature of aesthetics, as these might usefully impinge upon the artist’s practice. The lecture and seminar series have been devised to lend serious support to the studio practice as a viable contemporary art.
The programme is part of a related group of diploma programmes and students are encouraged to work together, attending life drawing classes and seminars with students from the Sculpture and Tapestry and Textile Art programmes, and those within the Conservation Studies programme.
Programme Tutor - Pat Taylor
Pat Taylor exhibits internationally and recently showed new work at Collect 2008, V&A, London.Her work hangs in institutions such as the Palace of Westminster and GreatOrmond Street Hospital in London and ChicagoUniversity in the USA.Pat joined West Dean College in 1988 and has been a visiting lecturer at The Royal College of Art, an external examiner at the University of Middlesex and a course advisor at Winchester College of Art. Pat is a member of the Index of Selected Makers with the British Crafts Council. Pat Taylor is Programme Tutor across all of the College's Visual Arts programmes including Painting & Drawing, Sculpture and Tapestry & Textile Art.
Assistant Tutor - Marcus Rees Roberts
Marcus Rees Roberts read English at Cambridge before taking postgraduate study in Film Theory at The Slade School of Fine Art. He then took a further postgraduate programme in Printmaking. He has taught at The Slade and was Head of Printmaking at Edinburgh College of Art. He now makes paintings, prints, artists' books and short films, exhibiting regularly in Britain and in the United States. He is represented by Pratt Contemporary Art.
Facilities
The Painting and Drawing and Sculpture pathways of the Visual Arts programme are housed within a purpose-built and dedicated workshop and studio space equipped for your specialisation.
IT facilities are available within the studio, including a scanner, digital camera, image manipulation software and Internet access. Additional computers are sited within the College library and IT suite.
In addition to your own personal studio space, you also have access to a number of specialised studios including a photographic studio, sculpture courtyard for larger scale work, pottery, forge and new for 2008, a printmaking studio.
The Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts is a University of Sussex interdisciplinary one year programme which provides a route into postgraduate study. You can choose to specialise in Painting and Drawing, Sculpture or Tapestry and Textile Art. The programme is designed for students whose practice is not ready to sustain postgraduate study but whose potential to work at that level is evident. Students on all Visual Arts programmes work together in an atelier culture.
The Prostgraduate Diploma programme in Visual Arts is a University of Sussex interdisciplinary one year programme which provides a route to the MA/MFA. You can choose to specialise in Painting and Drawing, Sculpture or Tapestry and Textile Art. Students on all Visual Arts programmes work together in an atelier culture.
Following successful completion of a Postgraduate Diploma you can, through additional taught units and an individual project, extend your studies to a calendar year to gain an MA in Visual Arts. Those who wish to sustain a focus upon their specialist studio practice can progress to a Masters in Fine Art (MFA) for a further full academic year.
All Visual Arts students have access to over 700 short courses run by the College throughout the year.
ENQUIRIES
Telephone: +44 (0)1243 818208 or 811301
Email: diplomas@westdean.org.uk
Visiting Lecturers
Tim Kent's paintings are meditations on the transience of being and metaphysics - the human figure is never totally defined. He studied at Hunter New York and West Dean.
Caroline de Lannoy, originally from Belgium, makes exquisite, optical paintings, some no bigger than two square inches.A Graduate of the AthensSchool of Fine Art, Central Saint Martins and the Slade.
Jane Patterson studied at Slade School of Fine Art in the famous ‘F’ studios. She makes work in the landscape and works from the model and from still life. She has taught at the Slade and has shown at Browse and Darby.
Daniel Preece’s cityscapes are designed to encourage the viewer to consider the city differently and lead them to reassess their daily surroundings with a different eye. Daniel studied at Chelsea and the Slade. He shows at Sarah Myerscough and at Purdy Hicks, both in London.
Sophie Plowdenpaints landscapes inspired by the countryside combining a balance between abstraction and representation: through strong brushwork and vivid colour. She is a graduate of the Edinburgh College of Art. She shows at Jane England and Co. in London.
Ian Rowlands studied at the RoyalAcademy and has written extensively on the materials and methods of the artist and life painting.
Gary Woodley works with spatial concerns. Often given a gallery to fill he explores the entrance and exterior before alighting on a solution for the main area. He studied at the Slade and teaches at Chelsea.
Karen Gardner is intrigued with the physical immediacy of making and responding specialising in Two Dimensional and Three Dimensional work using the model.Karen has studied at the Virginia Commonwealth University,Maryland Institute College of Art and Moore College of Art and Design in the US and MA in Visual Arts at West Dean.
Pippa Blake is an artist and painter whose main concern is to explore the relationships between man-made objects and natural forms in the landscape. Pippa studied at Camberwell and gained a postgraduate diploma in Painting and Drawing at West Dean.
Student profiles
Jayne Sandys-Renton, Postgraduate diploma in Painting and Drawing, progressing to MA Visual Arts 2007-2008
The whole experience of being at West Dean has been a life-enhancing one – I’ve truly flourished here. A professional painter already, my year here has allowed me the space and time to think about my work, and to explore new ways of approaching, in my case, the figure. Having my own studio space, access to the wide range of permanent and visiting tutors, opportunities to seek advice from other departments, the high quality of lectures in support of my studio-practice, the facilities and even where we have lunch all add up to a unique experience. It has been fantastic being here, a real opportunity for studying/working in the space that Edward James conceived as a haven for artists and craftspeople.
Sophie Adams, Postgraduate Diploma leading to MA Visual Arts, 2008 - 2009
After graduating from the B.A at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2007, I was artist-in- residence at West Dean. The experience so inspired me that I wanted to come back and study here on the MA in Visual Arts. I felt I really worked intensively on my residency due to the engaging environment of West Dean and I carried that through into my MA. The facilities, such as the working hours and studio spaces, support students that want to immerse themselves in their studio practice. To inform the studio practice, there are a high quality art theory lectures as well as a wide range of visiting and permanent tutors. The work I’ve produced and the process of making it over this year at West Dean has opened up new possibilities within my practice as a painter.
