Fine Art Practice

The Fine Art Practice Degree programme is unique within Wales due to the
bespoke foundry and dedicated print studio facilities. The course has an
emphasis on experimentation in an exciting studio environment supported by
specialist workshops; exploring the past to inform contemporary practice.
The degree programme is dynamic, challenging and creative, run by tutors who
are recognised specialists in their field. We aim for our students to investigate
and understand the contemporary fine art world and its continually evolving
position due to social and political factors. The local landscape plays an
insightful role in the potential for students to explore site specific, installation,
performance and land art practice. This will encourage and enable you to
formulate experimental approaches through a multitude of art forms. Methods
and material workshops are taught in a hands-on way; valuing the importance
of thinking through making.

All students are encouraged to embrace the expansive field of fine art through
lectures on its history, culture and contemporary position. This is supported
through discussion of your work in one to one tutorials, seminars, group and
cross-course crits. You will learn transferable skills for employability within the
creative industries, many former students have well-established careers
regionally, nationally and internationally. Students will also form a confident
language in response to contemporary art practice by the end of their studies.

Our art school offers you individual workspaces and specific workshops for steel
fabrication, stone carving, wood, plaster, life-drawing, painting, and a print
studio for woodblock, stone lithography and etching. The department holds the
only foundry in the UK that specialises in bronze, aluminium and iron casting.

The first year is structured around skill based inquiry into sculpture, painting,
and printmaking, learning through practical experience in a safe and inclusive
environment. All students learn and develop representational drawing skills
through close observation of still life and the figure. In the second and third
year you will express and explore your artistic, social and personal interests
independently and critically informed by focused research. Weekly tutorial
sessions with tutors will support students to develop and create a personal
body of work. Students have dedicated studio spaces within a well-equipped,
light and airy environment. Class sizes are small allowing for a high level of tutor
interaction and easy access to resources.

The course supports the development of your studio practice with an emphasis
on craft and skill. Lectures and contextual dialogues enable you to position
yourself and your practice in terms of art history and contemporary critical
thought, so that you will be equipped with the tools to map and research your
own interests. Frequent opportunities for public exhibitions and events prepare
you professionally for a wide range of potential careers. All these skills are
transferable across a range of professional contexts. This taught creative
thinking ability associated with fine art practice is becoming increasingly
important in the world of commerce and business.

We aim to help students realise their full potential within a supportive, friendly,
nurturing and creative working environment.

Year 1 – A skills based year delivered through a series of tutor led workshops
and independent study.

Year 2 – A developmental year devised to allow you to apply the skills gained in
year one to identify personal strengths and areas of interest within a range of
industry relevant contexts.

Year 3 – A personal negotiated brief which allows you to consolidate your
practice and build a portfolio in preparation for future progression and personal
ambitions, culminating in an opportunity to showcase your work in a final
degree show.