Throwback: Waterloo

Throwback to when I went to Waterloo June 2015... 

This time last week, I was in Waterloo. No, not the station in London, but the battle ground in Belgium. It was the bicentennial, and in commemoration, there was a large battle reenactment which involved 5000 reenactors, 300 horses and 100 canon.

Scotland Forever- the 1881 oil painting by Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) which portrays the march of  the Royal Scots Greys at the battle

The battle took place on the 18th June 1815, and was where the emperor Napoleon of France was finally defeated by the allied troops of Britain and Prussia under Wellington and von Blucher respectively.

Although I've never really thought of myself as a battle-reenactment kinda gal, this is the kind of thing that only comes round once every 200 years, and I couldn't miss it. The incredible effort that the reenactors put in was really something to behold. Many of them made their own costumes, and they all lived in the realistic bivouac for the entire weekend: eating, sleeping, and washing like the soldiers and their families would have done two centuries ago.

Sneaky shot of life in the bivouacs 

Of course, the reenactment in itself was astounding: the sheer size, scale and sound was impressive, and actually quite shocking- I had never really understood how huge the battle ground was, and how insignificant one little soldier must have felt. Under the cover of the grey smoke -produced by the canon- the battle really came to life.

Trying to take a photo through the hazy smoke- the raincoats in the audience are a tad anachronistic... 

However, the real surprise was how much I loved the museum! Yes, I'll admit it, museums of battles have always kind of been my nemesis, as I've always seen them as sucking any interesting part of the battle out and leaving the shell stapled to the wall. But this museum was really something quite different. Accompanied by an engaging English audio guide, I made my way through to the walls of paintings, only to discover that they were not in fact just paintings. Rather than having a static painting with a simple plaque underneath, there were high definition screens which zoomed in on the most important parts of each painting. Most spectacularly, parts of the painting were subtly animated to really bring it to life. For instance, one of the paintings of Trafalgar had the ships gently rocking up and down on the sea, and splashes of water showing where the canon balls fell. What a way to present art from all over the world!

One of the best parts of the museum- a long corridor lined with wax figures wearing the gear from the time

We also visited the Lion's Mound memorial (of 1820) and the Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo (designed in 1911) which houses the 360ft -in circumference- painting by Louis Dumoulin. Both of which were really great experiences. (Although I did rush out of the panorama after noticing a sign that read 'only 50 people allowed at one time' and seeing how there were at least 200 people crowding onto the wooden platform! Clearly health and safety aren't such a big deal here.) We even managed to get a photo of the brand new Battle of Waterloo monument which was unveiled by Prince Charles only a week ago!

Selfie with a poor soul immortalised on the Panorama 

All in all, a really important, interesting and engaging visit.

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Things I've Learnt from my Personal Trainer

I can’t believe I’ve been training with Abi for over a year and a half. Now I’m moving away for Uni and thought I’d think about everything I’ve learned from the hours of sweat.

When we started, I weighed 11 stone 8 lbs, was so unfit I got out of breath climbing stairs and ate chocolate for pretty much every meal. I didn’t seriously think I’d take up training and met with Abi to stop my mum nagging. Somehow, within a few months I was training twice a week, and then three times a week.

Now, I weigh 9 stone 10lbs and I don’t eat chocolate, sugar or white bread anymore. Yes, I wrote chocolate and sugar separately to convey the gravitas, because for me chocolate in all its chocolatey goodness is in a completely different category from other food.

May 2016 -- September 2016 

Anyway, here’s 8 things I’ve learned…

 1. Basically everything you thought is wrong. These are gonna need some subtitles…

a.     You have a lot more time than you think. I have really strong memories of arguing with my mum when she suggested I meet with her personal trainer. I’d just started Sixth Form and couldn’t contemplate fitting anything else into my schedule, particularly something that would make me more tired. But when I continued to train three times a week around my A2 exams this year, it showed me I really can fit it in when I need to. It helped me plan my revision far better if I knew I had training that day. So another thing I’ve gained: time management. 

b.    Your will power is stronger than you think. One of the hardest challenges (yes, harder than interval training) was sitting at a friend’s house and she’d cooked some chocolate snack. A bunch of us were watching the Game of Thrones season premiere and they were munching away. I didn’t have a bite. There aren’t many things I love more than Game of Thrones and chocolate, and somehow I managed to resist one of those (clue: the one without the gore and incest). Since then, I’ve resisted chocolate/bread/pasta cravings on countless occasions. And it isn’t just food. Having a trainer waiting for me means I do roll out of bed and get to the gym. I do complete that last rep even when I feel like my limbs have turned into bricks. Or marshmallows. Or both.

c.     You are stronger than you think. Now this one’s physically, none of that emotional stuff. When I was 13, I went to countless doctors after finding my hands went into spasm when I tried to write more than about a paragraph. I also suffered from back pain, neck pain, and migraines. They all had different things to say but it basically came down to ‘severe muscle weakness and fatigue.’ I kind of took that to mean ‘you are medically weak; there’s nothing you can do. Here’s your excuse to sit on the couch all day.’ Anyway, even though I do still suffer from spasms in my joints and occasional migraines, training has turned my severely weak muscles into stronger ones that support: squats, lifts, planks and everything else Abi throws at me.  I rarely think now that I can’t do something she sets me. I just know it’ll take a lot of work and I will end up sweaty and smelling like a sock…

Diary entry from 11th January 2015: I was so worried I wouldn't keep at it, because I've never stuck at something like this before. 

2. Exercise helps with almost everything. Small areas like my wrists still struggle with being very weak and painful occasionally, but pretty much everything else I can think of has been helped since we’ve started training, and I’ve got fitter and stronger. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise why my body just struggles less with things than it used to. It’s also really helped with my mental state too though. Whenever I feel stressed exercising gives me at least an hour where I’m not thinking about anything other than how the hell am I going to do another rep of this!? It also helps to have a trainer I can vent to about anything as long as I’m lifting weights!

3. To be confident in the ‘Men’s Area.’ I used to –infrequently- go to the gym alone and, when I did, the heavy weight section was just completely off bounds to me. It didn’t even cross onto my radar because it was so clearly full of huge men who would crush me if I walked over. Actually, it wasn’t just this area. So many parts of the gym seem intimidating. Like parts that are too crowded. Or parts where too many good looking people are assembling. I’ll just stick to the back near the toilets, thank you. But since seeing how my trainer marches right through to the equipment she wants me to use, I’ve realised there aren’t actually any posters telling me where I can and can’t go. And yes, I still jump when the weight-lifters yell and throw their barbells, but I’m getting there…

4. Personal achievements are the best kind. Ok so some people might go for hours on a treadmill, at an incline, lifting weights. But when I started I was terrified of treadmills, getting shakes just thinking about how fast they go and how I could so easily fall off the back. Somehow a few months ago, Abi and I started getting me on one. First at a walk, and then at a jog, and now I can run on them without thinking about my impending doom. Getting on that treadmill might seem like a small victory for others but for me it really showed how far we’d come.

Pre-gym selfies are a bit of a ritual... 

5. Nothing tastes as good as skinny healthy feels. Sorry, Kate Moss, but your slogan isn’t as great as this one. I don’t agree that the goal should be skinny but I do agree that the feeling of eating chocolate doesn’t even compare with the feeling I have when a Measuring Day goes well. I obviously still get the voice in my head saying you need that Galaxy bar. You deserve it. But then I think about the new gym gear in Victoria Secret, and I would much rather deserve that.

6. Shopping for gym clothes is the best reward. Ok so I’ve already mentioned Victoria Secret and although I’m yet to actually buy something from there (erm, £50 for leggings…) trying the stuff in hope of future sales has been one of the best rewards and motivation.

River Island gym gear <3 (£18 and worth it) 

7. Speaking of rewards: food shouldn’t be one. It’s insane how society reinforces food as a reward for good behaviour or a celebration. During the first few months of me eating healthily I had my birthday, my best friends’ birthdays, end of school, end of exams… It was the start of summer and a really bazaar time not to be eating chocolate. My 18^th birthday genuinely didn’t feel that big a deal without something sugary to make me feel celebrated. It made me feel sad that kids are brought up to associate the two so strongly. So Abi and I made a new tradition: weighted lunges to commemorate the day…

8.  Pain the next day is an amazing feeling (and you will love telling everyone). I never thought I would enjoy the feeling of waking up in the morning and having abs that feel like bricks sticking me to the mattress. Or walking down stairs only to find my quads have just given up supporting my weight. But it shows me how hard I’ve worked the day before and of course I love being able to say Oh, don’t mind me, I’m only crying with pain because of Leg Day yesterday.

Well, really, what haven’t I learnt? Before I joined the gym, I didn’t know my shoulder-press from my Russian twist. I also had no idea about diet, for instance which carbs are friends and which are foe.

Now the real test will just be Fresher’s Week…

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A Survivor's Guide to the EPQ

Around this time last year, I had just finished the first draft of my EPQ essay.

The Extended Project Qualification is offered by AQA and Edexcel exam boards and involves choosing a question to investigate and then writing a 5,000 word report on said question.

August to December 2015 was probably the most stressful time of my life so far. Beginning with EPQ research in the summer and leading through to the essay deadlines, the presentation, personal statement writing, university applications, Cambridge interview preparation, the interview, coursework deadlines… on top of all my normal school work. It was a really intense time.

Taking selfies with my books instead of reading them... As you do. 

The title of my EPQ was “To What Extent Was Political Change The Most Important Factor In Influencing The Creation Of Realism In The 1800s?” I investigated political change as a key factor, and then argued that other factors such as the role of individuals, technological and scientific advancements, and social change were equally, if not more, crucial in the creation of the artistic movement. You can read more details about my EPQ and an excerpt here.

In the end I got an A* in the project so it was all worth it but I really empathise with people going through the process right now. So I thought I’d write down a few pointers I’d give to those undertaking the EPQ this year.

1. Pick something you are genuinely interested in. Honestly, one of the main things that helped me not have a complete mental breakdown was the fact I am obsessed (in case you didn’t notice) with history of art, the subject of my EPQ.

So that would be my first piece of advice to anyone undertaking an EPQ: pick something you are passionate about. You are going to have to spend hours sitting at home or in a library reading and reading and writing and writing about this subject. If you don’t love it I really don’t think you’ll be able to finish it or pick up another book again. My teacher said to me “write about something you’ve always had a burning desire to find out.” Now, I wouldn’t go that far because it’s a bit unrealistic. I don’t wake up every day wanting to know about the creators of realism, but I knew I love talking and reading all about art so it was a safe bet I wouldn’t get bored.

No, I didn't do doodles for my EPQ...

2. Once you know the general topic, do thorough research to find a good title. So, great, you know you love zoology so it makes sense to write about animals. But you obviously can’t write about the entirety of the animal kingdom in 5000 words, giving enough detail where necessary. So next you’ll be asked to narrow down your topic. I’d say make sure you do enough research about different options in order to be able to pick the best one. I sort of fell into doing realism, but if I’d researched more art movements beforehand, I would have better understood which one to focus on and would have narrowed down my research far earlier.

3. Find a topic with a good debate. This one’s tricky, but it’s another one I’d have improved about my essay. The historians I researched all pretty much agreed with each other. I think it would have made a far more interesting angle if there was a bit of disagreement. For instance, instead of looking at what caused the creation of Realism, if I had looked at its impact and whether or not it was a relevant art movement, there would be far more discussion to analyse.

4. Give up on your summer. Ok, not quite, but yeah, I didn’t go away after AS exams. I planned small things in London and went to Reading Festival but nothing huge. You’re going to need days of sitting at home researching where to even find research. Once you’ve located books you need, there’ll probably only be one copy in the whole of your city and it’ll be on the complete other side and you’ll need to take three trains and a bus to get to the library. Once there, something will happen like they won’t have posted online that they close at midday on a Friday so the whole trip was a waste. Or you’ll have forgotten to order the book with 48 hours notice (yeah, make sure you do that). Then you’ll need time to collate all the notes you’ve made and write it into a cohesive essay. So all in all, you’ll need time. There’ll be moments when you’ll think to yourself the deadline is in October, I’m sure I’ll have time between July and then… But you’ll soon figure out that when you get back to school at the beginning of September, none of your other teachers really care that you’re doing an EPQ and will pile on the homework. So it’s a good idea to have the bulk done before you go back to school.

Example of my schedule. Scheduling is ev.ery.thing.

5. Be aware of deadlines. Not just the EPQ ones, which kind of goes without saying, but also other ones in your academic life. Coursework deadlines are often around Christmas time too or maybe earlier so you’ll often be doing EPQ at the same time as this. A lot of people who do the EPQ often apply for Oxbridge of Medicine, as their application deadline is also mid-October. My EPQ presentation was on the 14^th and so was the Cambridge personal statement deadline. Intense. Stay on top of it all!

6. Write your bibliography/ production log/ resource log as you go along. It’s tempting to just write the essay and deal with all the admin-stuff later. But I’d advise against this. Firstly, your will lose track of which resources you’ve used, how useful they were, what pages you used for which quote… It becomes a lot to deal with all together. So just add the footnotes as you’re doing it. Secondly, you will be finishing your EPQ right in the middle of your first term in year 13 and you don’t want to be panicking about a page number you can’t find. Another thing is that most referencing styles want the date you accessed a web-page to prove it was really there when you saw it (just in case it is taken offline at a later date) so make sure you keep track of webpages too. 

7. Research how to reference. Insanely boring but necessary. Each academic subject has different conventions so find out which ones you need to use before you do all your footnotes and the bibliography, or you’ll just have to go back and change it all. Bear in mind there are conventions for literally every time of information.

Me looking like a Cool Kid outside the V&A's National Art Library

8. Be careful not to plagiarise. It can be really tempting to read a great phrase and slip it in to your work, passing it off as your own… Tempting, but highly stupid. Exam boards now have technology which finds if phrases are too similar to other works they have on their system. More and more people (like me) post their work online (mainly to show off about how damn hard they’ve worked on something) but there’s not point plagiarising other students. Chances are you’ll be caught, and their stuff probably won’t be worth it. It’s even more stupid to plagiarise from published academic works as you can just include it in your bibliography and get points for that anyway.

9. Basically, do it. History of Art wasn’t offered as an A-level in my school, so I had never actually written an essay in this field. It was intimidating because I didn’t really know where to start. But as I spent hours in the National Art Library, I realised I really wasn’t getting bored, in fact, I loved it. It helped secure the idea in my mind that this was really what I wanted to do for a degree. The EPQ will really help prepare you for University and higher academia because of the reliance on your own time management and research which you don’t really get from secondary school. I’d really recommend it as it will (hopefully!) give you confidence in your abilities and a deeper understanding of your chosen subject.

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My EPQ: Realism

I completed my Extended Project Qualification in October 2015. I received an A*. The title was ‘To what extent was political change the most important factor in influencing the creation of Realism in the 1800s?’ Here is an excerpt from the 5000 word essay I wrote, along with the presentation. I have included my bibliography below.

See the presentation here... 

Read my tips on the EPQ here... 

Courbet, The Burial at Ornans (1850)

…His first great masterpiece was The Burial at Ornans (1850) which Chu (2010) states ‘caused a scandal at The Salon of 1850-1.’ The painting portrayed normal townspeople (rather than historical figures or famous aristocrats of the time) in a huddled, messy composition. Not only did the presentation of the piece concern critics, for it was too large and seemed to have no central figure, there was a definite unsettling political undercurrent to the work. Courbet’s jumbled composition was seen as ‘egalitarian’ and ‘republican’, portraying ‘equal representation’ (Chu, 2010). After gaining credibility and fame following the success of Burial, Courbet began to write political essays and dissertations on social and democratic policies. His ideas about the position of the lower classes, and the inevitability of their fate is a clear theme in all of his pieces. With The Stonebreakers (1850), Courbet hinted at this by depicting two men of indistinguishable age, which could be showing the inescapable life of a worker. Courbet described this as “Alas, in that class, that is how one begins and that is how one ends up,” (Chu, 2010). Another method that Courbet used in this painting was to shield the faces of the men, thereby dehumanising them and evoking how the workers were treated like machines, and were not valued for their individual human characteristics. A similar method can be seen in both Millet’s The Sower (1850) and The Gleaners (1857), both of which present their subjects in a way that hides their identities, thus alluding to the fact that they represent thousands. Courbet’s influence was vast, because of his revolutionary ideas about subject matter and portrayal. Novotny (2002) stated that ‘a list of the painters in whom [Courbet’s influence] is discernible would include practically all the leading figures.’ This, therefore, is a valuable starting point from where to discern the driving forces behind the Realist movement, as Courbet was clearly its primary creator.

Jean Francois Millet 

…Whereas Courbet’s paintings were quite overtly political –which was unsurprising considering his later involvement with the radical socialist government: the Paris Commune of 1871- and often aimed to ‘shock the bourgeois’ (Gombrich, 1950), Millet’s paintings seem to have a more subtle agenda. Born in 1814, Millet became renowned for his dedicated depiction of peasant life, and would later be called the ‘founder’ of the nineteenth-century approach to these subjects (Chu, 2010).  Whereas Courbet’s work often seems to invoke sympathy, Millet’s demands respect. Although the majority of his peasants are bent –often carrying produce or gleaning a field- they do not seem to cower under their burdens, but have a certain determination about them. Millet was able to portray the hardship and brutal truth of life as a peasant but he was also able to interlace this with dignity. Perhaps it is for this reason that, even more than Courbet, Millet is seen as ‘the model of twentieth-century social realism’ (Eitner, 2002)…

…Thus, the motivations behind these two most prominent Realist painters seem to range from political to social. Initially, it seems from analysing their paintings that Courbet was more politically motivated whereas Millet seemed to have a more emotional, social agenda. But there were other factors which may have affected them more subtly, and these factors will be analysed in the ensuing essay…

Daumier, The Fugitives (1850) 

…Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of life at the time- in the mid 1800s- was the constant political upheaval that came with the revolutions that spread across Europe, which is why Realism is thought to be politically fuelled. The biggest example of political change was the 1848 Revolutions.

…In Sicily the workers of Palermo rose up in January 1848 with a cry of “To arms, sons of Sicily; our united force will be invincible!” (Pearce, Stiles, 2008) Spurred on by this the rest of Europe soon broke out into revolution, the majority of which were led by the workers. Although the Sicilians were also angered by a cholera outbreak in 1846 (for which they blamed government mismanagement), the rest of the revolutionaries shared the same goal: they all wanted liberal reforms and for their respective monarchies to allow them constitutions. As well as this, there had been severe food shortages which soon affected economies across Europe. This contributed to the recession and massive unemployment in France, further increasing the discontent. (Pearce, Stiles, 2008) The political upheaval had a profound effect on the art world. The art from that year’s Salon reflects the impact the events of 1848 had had on the artists. Chu (2010) describes that whilst some artists were deeply affected by the hardship seen in these years of strife, others had been ‘swept up in the republican enthusiasm’ and created artworks with this type of agenda...

Millet, The Winnower, (1868)

…In times of change, art is often produced as a way to capture a people’s collective emotion, whether that be fear, anger, or determination. The art of the Realists best captured this change in the zeitgeist, and Daumier was one such artist. Not to be dismissed as just a caricaturist, Honoré Daumier offered a commentary on 19^th Century social and political life in France. Although satirical, his art was not created for comedic purposes. It often had very poignant messages. It gained much material in the aftermath of the revolutions, as can be seen in The Fugitives (1870), which depicted the mass movement of people, driven by hunger to wander through central Europe in search of food and shelter, (Chu, 2010). Whereas The Fugitives was a clear comment on contemporary events, other Realist artists were more subtle in their messages, although this did not prevent them from being labelled political activists. A way in which the depiction of political ideas was achieved, particularly by Millet, was to portray the peasants in a heroic, quasi-allegorical manner.  For instance in The Sower or The Winnower (1868), the statures of the men seem determined and strong, much like the recent revolutionaries would have been. The critics of the Realists certainly thought their art was political provocation. They attacked Millet’s The Gleaners by saying “the pikes of [the revolutions of] 1793 seem to rise up behind these figures,” (Lorenz,2002) finding it to be a depiction of the recent political turbulence. A similar theme can be sensed in Millet’s The Winnower, in which the worker wears a red hat: the Phrygian slave cap. It was used as an emotive symbol in the 1789 French revolution, and the fact it was being used again in the mid 1800s shows that people still held onto these revolutionary dreams and beliefs and demonstrates that they thought these goals could fully be achieved in the current century (Ansell, 2012)…

Millet, The Gleaners, 1857

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