During the Easter holidays 6th Form Art & Design students took part in a workshop at school with Ceramicist Elaine Peto. Elaine gave a demonstration of her working methods in the morning, where she made a warthog with the simplest of means. It was astonishing to witness her conjuring up a likeness within seconds by manipulating thin sheets of clay that were representative of both the body and skeleton of the animal.

This convincing realism is founded upon endless detailed observation and backed by a string of brilliant technical inventions.

She brought with her a wide range of animal sculptures from horses to hares for us to study. In the afternoon it was our turn to use Elaine’s methods to create our own animal and we soon realised how deceptively easy Elaine had made it look.

However with expert guidance at hand everyone was pleased with the new skills and methods of working with clay they had picked up.

This was particularly relevant for Year 13 MB student Jason who is aiming to make a large scale horse sculpture for his A Level exam next week. Good luck Jason!