Claire Benn invited her students of the Out of This Earth online course to explore the theme of 'Out of This Earth', in this student exhibition.

Foreword by Claire Benn;
I began to write this introduction on Earth Day, which seems appropriate for an exhibition drawn from the work of students who participated in the ‘Out of This Earth’ online workshop.

I’m delighted to be able to present this exhibition, and although drawn from a single workshop, the scope of the pieces demonstrates how each individual found their own way, their own preferences and their own ideas when using earth pigments with soya milk.

Learning new media is a journey of discovery. A journey that enables each of us to discover what we respond to.., and what we don’t. Mastery over the media and the tools is also important. We are all perfectly imperfect, and in engaging with this great bunch of people, I’ve seen how they’ve trusted the process and forged on through – sometimes having to repeat approaches two, three or even ten times to understand what’s involved, grapple with the variables (such as the weather) and learn how their own selves affect the outcome. Having been through similar journeys myself, I’m aware that as well as whoops of delight and pleasure, there will have been much gnashing of teeth and cursing!

“The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion”.

Claire Benn