THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE 155
Simon Betts is currently Dean of College
Wimbledon College of Art. He studied painting at
Sheffield Polytechinic and later completed his MA
in painting at Chelsea College of Art & Design.
He worked in further education for a number of
years as course director foundation at Kensing-
ton & Chelsea College London, before becoming
course leader foundation at Wimbledon in 2003.
His drawing research interest is centered on draw-
ing pedagogy and developing courses that promote
new approaches to teaching and learning for draw-
ing across disciplines. He co-authored with Profes-
sor Stephen Farthing and Kelly Chorpening the
Drawing qualifications for the University of the
Arts London. He recently led a team to develop the
newly validated cross disciplinary MA Drawing
course which, based at Wimbledon College of Art,
begins this academic year. He has been an external
examiner at a number of Colleges in the UK, and
in 2005 was a foundation course consultant at the
Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Fu Dan Univer-
sity, China. He has recently been offered an Inter-
national Visiting Fellowship by RMIT Melbourne,
Australia, to work with their Pharmacutetical and
Chemistry Faculty to develop on-line drawing
modules to support learning in the sciences. As
a painter he has exhibited widely in the UK and
Europe. Group shows include: perpetuum mobile
The Gallery at APT London,(2008), The John
Moores Liverpool 19 (1995), Kunstbrucke 2, galerie
Parterre, Berlin Germany. Solo shows included
Radical surface, De Ploeghis Gallery Gronningen,
The Netherlands. Betts also selected and Curated
OUTBOUND 1 & 2, two residencies and exhibi-
tions of 6 students from 5 London art colleges at
Richter Werkatelier, Den Helder, The Netherlands
in 2008. The working title for Simon’s presentation
is: The Purpose of Drawing; New approaches for
teaching across disciplines.Angela Brew is a research student and a mem-
ber of The Centre for Drawing UAL, 123 Draw,
and the Drawing Research Network. After studying
sculpture and drawing at Edinburgh Art College
she created and ran Skylark Galleries http://www.
skylarkgalleries.com/ and worked as an artist and
drawing teacher. In 2006 she completed her Draw-
ing Masters at Camberwell, and began her doctor-
ate research on the impact of drawing practice on
perception. Her research interest is in cognitive,
perceptual and motor processes involved in draw-
ing and learning to draw. She is studying the devel-
opment and changes of rhythm in eye and hand
movements, and the role of the pause in drawing.
Her research method combines scientific study of
changes in eye-hand interactions with practical
experimentation in the drawing studio and classes,
attempting to develop new drawing instructions,
based on recent findings from cognitive science.
Her PhD thesis presents a quantitative longitudinal
study of students’ behaviour as they learn to draw.Rebecca Chamberlain is a PhD student in
the Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology
department at University College London working
under the supervision of Professor Chris McMa-Biographies