Famous Farley Farmhouse fascinates Year 12
On Thursday 1 July a group of Year 12 girls visited Farley Farmhouse at Chiddingly, formerly the home of the Surrealist artist Sir Roland Penrose and his wife, the Surrealist photographer Lee Miller.
The girls enjoyed a guided tour around the farmhouse which uses bright wall colours (including Farmers' Weekly Yellow!) as a background to a stunning collection of 20th century art. On display were ceramics, prints and paintings by Picasso as well as works by Paolozzi, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Paul Eluard, Joan Miro and many others. Several works of art had personal stories behind them with a particularly poignant case of materials relating to Lee Miller’s work as a US War Photographer during the Second World War.
The visit provided a great opportunity to see art in an intimate domestic setting, mixed with natural and found objects that had amused and delighted the two artists. The tour guide commented on the group’s focus and attention during the talk which the girls described as ‘fascinating’. After the tour the girls enjoyed the sunshine in the sculpture garden and visited an exhibition of contemporary art in the barn. Two tortoises in the garden also provided much amusement! The many roles undertaken by Lee Miller in her varied and eventful life were one focus of the visit, but it also covered psychology in the dream-like elements in the Surrealist paintings, history with Miller’s photographs of the London Blitz, as well as art history, painting and ceramics.
Mrs Jo Weddell, who organised the trip, commented "Activities Week provides a perfect opportunity for this kind of trip, enabling the girls to make links between different subjects and be inspired beyond the confines of the examinations."