An introduction to colour (Part five)

A different day five from another time

Colour and space

As we moved into the 90s colour and space become more important. We were looking for ways to move smoothly into 3D and it seemed logical to therefore get more involved in this area. New staff were coming in and older ones going, a different sort of hands on was needed. By now I had new responsibilities and was working across several courses, sometimes with the foundation course but not always. However I would nearly always return to teach the drawing, colour and 3D introduction during the autumn term.

At one point, I forget the year, we had students make small boxes and in these boxes they were making colour constructions from their collections of colour. We were getting them to develop 3D geometric forms and part of the task was to locate colour in space in order to clarify the forms made. Alongside these we were also getting them to make small freeform constructions that allowed students to test colours’ locations by moving them backwards and forwards in space. 

I cant remember who it was, Steve Carrick or Sean, who was now working full-time, decided that much more ambitious colour space constructions could be made, not only that, but they could be made in such a way that they created optical and spatial illusions. Georges Rousse and a few other artists had developed ways of working across and through environments with colour shapes placed in such a way that when seen from one unique viewpoint a simple geometric form would reveal itself. In order to do this well a precise control of colour and form in space was required as well as an understanding of perspective, therefore for foundation students a mix of two disciplines could be learnt at the same time. As working at this scale could only be done in teams, collaboration could be introduced and of course environmental, installation and site-specific practices engaged with. This of course reflected changes in fine art practices nationally. By now nearly all the painting schools had gone, fine art now being mainly conceptually driven and there being little room for specialist craft focused work.

The first year this was done it was very exciting, colour objects would spread over the studio, what could appear to be a mess of bits from one angle, would from a specific point (usually a camera tripod would be set up for this) suddenly appear to be a flat blue square or a perfect yellow equilateral triangle.

At the same time as these new ideas were being developed, student numbers were increasing. This meant that the focus was becoming more and more on organization; how to manage groups of large sizes, how to get them through workshops and the new need to ensure they all understood how to use appropriate computer software.  Some things were going to have to give and colour as it was taught was redesigned to fit new needs. Photoshop allowed you to select colours with ease and identify them as Pantone or any other colour system. You could mix on screen and view as many colour swatches as you wanted before making final choices. Few seemed interested in the mystery and history of oil paint. Phil Nicol was now the painting tutor and for a while he seemed to be holding out a possible space for painters to operate in but the reality was things had moved on.

Colour would at times become a vehicle for processing or mixing would be done with a chosen set of acrylic colours, to set rules; grids for mixes drawn up and 20 or 30 even mixes asked for, students now replacing discovery with precision. We were now (late 90s) really controllers who made sure students were in the right room doing the right thing at the right time and pointing out very straightforward things such as a mix that was out of step with the asked for gradation of tonal change or even worse that the squares were too messy.

I could easily get bored but there were now so many students, by the time you had been round everyone to check they knew what was going on, it was time for something else to happen. I wasn’t sure how this could be diagnostic either. Except for diagnosing colour blindness, it didn’t seem to be a problem solving session or an image building exercise, simply a lesson in control. However as I was now being packed off to the East Leeds Family Learning Centre to set up an art college in the middle of a housing estate, I was going to have to reinvent myself.

I don't think they do any colour theory at all now. Times change, I gather Elspeth has now resigned, so another foundation head will be being sought. 

I'm really bad at keeping track on who has been in control but I think Gavin was at one time head, then there was some sort of consortium or board of studies, whereby all the staff contributed, then in came Peter Smailes, followed by Terry, then John Fairclough and when he went on some computer course for  a year Derek took over as temporary head and then permanently as John decided to emigrate to New Zealand. 

I’ll probably park this for a while and come back to the issues surrounding staff, outreach work and access another time.  

Some of these stories are better told by others.