Over the past few days I have been playing around with a new idea for a group of pictures, responding to our current pandemic and attempting to convey something of what it feels like to be living in this crazy situation. Although the images are still in a rather early stage of development at the moment I believe that the idea has promise. There is only one drawback ….. all of the images centre upon the human figure.
I am aware of the fact that often my figure drawing is a relatively weak part of my work (as my wife reminds me with her characteristic fearless honesty). This is why I persist in going to life-drawing classes whenever this is possible. In a couple of recent pieces I tried to base the drawing upon an articulated wooden mannequin, and as a result of that I have decided that this is very much a second best solution. The results tend to look like an articulated wooden mannequin, which is hardly surprising. By way of contrast, the freeze-frame sketches I made from the TV showing of snooker matches pleased me. I really did manage to capture the sense of life and the purposeful action of the players, even when mediated by the TV screen.
Thinking about these experiences I have come to the conclusion that I really will have to bite the bullet and hire a model if I am going to take this new idea seriously. In theory, of course, this is no problem, as the tutors at the Art School in Ilkley have contact details for a dozen possible people. (I even have in mind the one who seems to fit best with what I imagine the form my work should take.) There is, of course, only one snag. You guessed it. The current lockdown regime makes this currently impossible. How dreadfully ironic (if somehow poetically appropriate) that a series of images based on the experience of isolation should be put on hold by our situation of isolation.