Art Students are sculpting in Lakeland

Furness College Art & Design students saw the culmination of a joint project working with the National Trust at Fell Foot Park.

As part of their BTEC National Extended Diploma in Art and Design, around twenty students have been visiting Fell Foot over the past few months to gain inspiration for a series of sixteen pieces of art involving painting, drawing and sculpture.

Students working on the two and three dimensional art forms have taken Fell Foot’s natural landscape, its wildlife and flora as inspiration. The park’s stunning backdrop of the Lakeland Fells and the waters of Windermere, together with creatures such as bats, mice, ducks and deer, all feature in the artwork. For many of the students, this will be the first time they will have had their work featured on public display – and they are looking forward to seeing the reaction from visitors over the next few months.

Once their BTEC is completed, most are hoping to progress to a career in the design or art industry.

Conor Richardson , a 17 year old student from Dalton-in Furness, said
“My motivation for the Fell Foot project was how much of an opportunity it was . As my tutor Mike said, many professional artists would love the chance to do a project like this, so for me a budding artist, it was a real chance for me to show the public what I can do. Working for Fell Foot was a real chance for me to have a go at working with materials I don’t really use in my other work. Also it improved my skills at creating large scale pieces of work, and to put it in its simplest form allowed me to get to the knitty gritty of art.”

Another student who worked on the project, Bridget Pattinson aged 21 from Barrow-in-Furness, added, “I think visiting Fell Foot really motivated me to want to make a sculpture to be displayed there. As I got to see the area, it helped me come up with ideas and I could visualise my final piece being viewed in specific areas. I have found it really exciting working for Fell Foot as it is a popular tourist attraction and knowing that my final piece will be seen by lots of people is amazing.”

Claire Spendlove, Fell Foot Park’s Manager said, ‘It’s great to be working with young people from Furness College. They’re a very talented bunch and we’re looking forward to seeing their finished artwork. The art project has been a wonderful way to involve our local community in the work of Fell Foot, and we hope that ‘Art in the Park’ will encourage local people to come and enjoy the superb countryside right on their doorstep’.

You can see ‘Art in the Park’ at Fell Foot from Saturday, 18 June when pieces will be on display around the park and in the Boathouse Café. A free trail has been developed which can be followed, and which gives more information about the students and the motivation behind their particular chosen artwork theme.

Photograph: Copyright Northwest Evening Mail