On a Tuesday evening I wandered up above the King’s bar and, narrowly avoiding the weekly Marxist discussion group, found myself in the King’s Art Centre with a small number of students from across the university who were itching, like me, to get a healthy amount of paint under their fingernails. Every Tuesday at 7pm a free art class takes place here, following the theme of “Drawing from the Masters”. Thankfully, the masters are not restricted to the Florentine Renaissance, and drawing turns out not to be synonymous with copying.

In this particular class we focused on surrealist collages involving the body. Out came the glue, the magazines, ink, charcoal and scissors. And for three hours we took out the frustration of supervisions on innocent bits of paper – innocent, that is, until positioned within collages which reflected the turmoil of the average Cantabrigian’s mental state. The teacher, Natalie, provided excellent teaching, and was very diplomatic about bestowing praise and help where it was needed.

My fellow attendees were of all skill levels, and everyone created something unique and personal. On one piece of paper Kate Moss was wielded like a mace, on another a female nude bled flower petals across a white background. Whilst this caused me to worry somewhat about the mental health of Cambridge students, it was at least a relief to see them embrace and channel their insanity in such an enjoyable (and largely harmless) context.

Not all classes result in such revealing psychological creations however. For the most part we work in charcoal, graphite, watercolour, pastels and acrylic. With materials supplied by King’s where possible, it is understandable though disappointing that more challenging (and expensive) media are not used more often – things such as oil paints, oilstick, and lino. However, for what is there I am grateful: free materials (although you are encouraged to bring your own paper and paints), free teaching, and the space to reclaim a bit of sanity. The programme for this term is nicely varied, and I will definitely be coming back when I can – and maybe even on Saturday afternoons too, when “Colour” is the course title.