…. as does life-drawing! I was intrigued yesterday to find out how the Ilkley Art School intended to cope with the distancing regulations responding to the current pandemic. Their response was impressive. There is a paved courtyard in front of their studio, and the class moved out there. A large canvas dome had been put … Read more
It is hard these days to form any sense of what might be meant by “normal”. The restrictions on movement and meeting in the UK have just been increased again, after a period during which we were coming to believe that life could become more open and more easy. This morning, however, we had a … Read more
….and I have discovered that there is more than one way to run a life-drawing class. This week is the half-term break for the class I normally attend, so last night I tuned in to the televised version that the BBC broadcast recently. It was an interesting experience. (I still have to watch the second … Read more
My wife and I were sitting enjoying an after-dinner cup of coffee this evening, and she was glancing through the latest edition of the Radio Times.* Suddenly she drew my attention to a new series, in which there will be a weekly life-drawing class on the TV. As regular readers will know, I attend such … Read more
Over the years several people, looking at my pictures, have helpfully remarked about the relative weakness of my figure-drawing. They were right, and I have taken steps to try and improve this aspect of my work. Two lines of approach have both been helpful, although in quite different respects. I have been an assiduous participant … Read more
In yesterday’s post I wrote about the experience of drawing from life, as seen from the point of view of the artist. This very valuable experience is contributed, however, by models and would be impossible without them. Just as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that there are misunderstandings about what it means to attend a … Read more
Several things over the last few days have set me thinking about the ways in which the life-drawing class is misperceived and misunderstood. In the next post I will say something about models and their experience, but on this occasion I want to concentrate on the situation of the artist/participant. I suppose that the most … Read more
I am discovering that there are several benefits that attend participation in the life-drawing class UI go to each week. Recently it has seemed that the instructor has an inexhaustible supply of media and techniques which we are invited to try. Last night we were asked to work with a combination of ink and conte … Read more
I forget which poet is responsible for the phrase, but it has often been said that “distance lends enchantment to the view.” Actually, looked at from an artistic point of view it is much more important than that. Last night I broke out of my artistic inertia and managed to do a small portrait of … Read more
I’m writing this as I am about to leave for the weekly life-drawing class I attend. I always look forward to it, and it is always able to offer an interesting challenge. The instructor invariably has some new medium or approach he wants us to try. I never have the faintest idea what will be … Read more