This week we are enjoying a visit by our nine-year-old grandson. These experiences are always enjoyable, but invariably present their own challenges and surprises. Working with him in the studio on a little print experiment presented one such experience. It is my habit, when I return from one of my weekly life-drawing classes, to pin … Read more
I’ve taken an interest in Lucian Freud’s painting for a long time, and visited his recent exhibition in the National Gallery, in London. It was an impressively comprehensive retrospective survey of his work, and I decided to buy the catalogue and collection of essays that marked the occasion. Yesterday evening I managed to finish reading … Read more
The second exhibition I visited during my recent trip to London was the Lucien Freud show at the National Gallery. It was a curious experience not the least because I ended up having to revise quite considerably my estimation of his work. I have always been an admirer of Freud, and I think that the … Read more
Recently I’ve been toying with the idea of attempting more portraits. I was reasonably pleased with the little sketch I did of my wife recently. The announcement that our regular life-drawing class will be restarting very soon has re-enforced that interest. Having been loaned a book about Egon Schiele and Jenny Saville recently my thinking … Read more
It seems that I owe an apology to Mary Beard. On the 11th. I was very critical of her TV discussion of the nude in art, and in particular for her neglect of the important theme of the crucifixion in western art. Of course, I discovered, when I realised that this was only the first … Read more
For some reason or another we found ourselves watching on TV last night the programme compiled some time ago by the classicist Mary Beard, on the subject of the nude in art. In some ways it was very predictable, with the presenter running out a variant of the John Berger line about the male gaze. … Read more
For some reason that escapes me at the moment, broadcasters have become interested suddenly in the subject of nudity. I mentioned in a recent posting the fact that there is currently a TV series showing in the UK in which viewers are invited to join a televised life-drawing class. In a somewhat different vein, the … Read more