ESBAM

This is ESBAM, the art school where I have been spending the last few months. It is a world away from Camberwell College of Arts in Peckham. At first glance, it may look like ESBAM would be the obvious preferred choice to study painting, it is in an idyllic location; a stones throw from the famous Calanques, the stunning coast line. Pine Trees surround the art school and it is layed out completely differently to Camberwell.
The original building was in fact designed to be an art school by regional artists in 1874 so studio blocks are dotted around in square building form, with each block acting as a studio for painting, drawing, sculpture, graphics etc.
It is a very old and dishevelled art school. You enter a painting studio and it looks like a tornado hit it twenty years ago, there are flying canvases all over the place and very old easles in bits on the floor. Camberwell seems extremely organized and structured compared to ESBAM. There is no blackboard site in Marseille you have to rely on word of mouth and the occasional email you receive from the Erasmus coordinator. It is infernal to find a tutor. They do not come in everyday or even every week, they only decided to put their times up on studio the wall in November, and so I then found out they only come in a couple of times a month. So you realize as a student at Esbam you really have to motivate yourself to work, find the will within you and try and hunt for a tutor in order to get any help or advice. II suppose the whole stereotypical south of France blazé arty atmosphere is part of Esbam’s charm, the students stroll in at 4 and leave at 6, smoke joints in boiler suits in front of really over sized abstract canvases. The school is absolutely mental but still great!