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After the delights of New York and Florence of previous years this time we decided to visit our own capital simply because everything we wanted and needed to see was conveniently on our doorstep.

Our first visit was to the little known Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons. This is a little gem of a museum and is home to 3,000 specimens, some which are not for the faint hearted but after the initial shock everyone was soon hard at work filling pages of their sketchbooks with notes and drawings.

The V&A caused much excitement for all manner of reasons. The casts court is amazing with plaster casts of some of the most iconic sculptures as well as complete church fronts and all of Trajan’s column. They are all jumbled into two large rooms ( one of which is undergoing some redecoration ) and you could easily spend hours looking at Italian renaissance pieces, Celtic monuments and medieval heraldic tombs. Of course, the rooms containing the history of British fashion was very popular and many were engrossed with the details of fabrics, structures, colours and textures. There is so much to see and we really could have spent the whole day there.

Next up was the Natural History Museum. This was another opportunity for artists to add to and build their coursework. The range of exhibits is vast but perhaps the star exhibit was the building itself which is decorated with brick and tiles displaying the very things it is meant to display.

The British Museum holds more treasures acquired during the height of the British Empire but it was interesting this time, to see contemporary works by artists such as Damien Hirst and Ron Mueck on display alongside more conventional and traditional work. Out of their usual gallery habitat, they somehow seemed at home and appropriate in their new setting.

The Tate Modern gave us all an opportunity to gather more inspiration for our own work. There is some stunning work there of such variety of scale, medium and subject matter that everyone came away full of enthusiasm for the work they had just seen. The National Gallery provided more of the same but from further back in our cultural heritage. The treatment of subject matter, the conventions and rules are all still relevant and inspirational today. Last of all we dipped into the National Portrait Gallery for some celebrity spotting.

My thanks go to Mrs Hollingworth and Miss Black for their help and support but I must thank all those who came along, who worked with such enthusiasm in the galleries, museums and back at the hotel. It was a short three days but everyone packed a huge amount of effort into all they did and I am grateful for their energy and good humour throughout.

SD