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Arting About

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I'm at at again. My late Mum taught me at home and I took an A' Level in Art age 17 before the 'usual' three A' Levels the following year. 

At the School of Communication Arts, London I went from copywriter to art director to possible illustrator in two terms - but did nothing with it.

Twenty years ago my mum was pointing me towards academics she know who taught art about taking an MA in Fine Art. I procrastinated, though I put a book together.

I settled into Life Drawing six years ago and printmaking this January.

A chine collé print showing the figure of a man against a stylised tree with fungi

Who knows what'll come of it. It keeps me out of trouble I suppose, though it is an expense to indulge: paper, inks, access to a press ... 


Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Jonathan Vernon, Monday, 13 Feb 2023, 12:02)
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Life Goes On ... what about you?

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Did Covid take the wind out of your sails? Physiological or psychologically? Just a matter of timing, circumstances or health? Have you reassessed? Personally, I could never go back to full-time work, even before the pandemic a 4 day week job and some additional freelance work was enough - variety matters. These days a 3 day week, or 2 job shares and some freelance bits and pieces suits me. Lockdown has shown me categorically that I am ill-suited to an office job, that I am content in my own company for much of the time - getting on with a thing, with moments of intense activity during the week and month. Project work.

What about you?

Has reading, thinking and writing up ideas got you?

Have other matters taken priority?

I lost a sister in April. More so than my parents dying (it happens to all of us eventually, it has to) I felt gutted, turned inside out and determined to live in a different way and at a different pace. I am doing what I dearly wish all my siblings had found a way to keep doing: art. I would have been my sister's salvation; it is what our late mother gave us - teaching us to draw and paint long before we could read or write, establishing our skills and interests many years ahead of our peers.

The dry weather has helped create a semi-permanent studio/workshop. Attending life drawing classes since November 2016 I have finally thought about working some of these in paint; watercolour for now, though there are pastels, acrylics and oils waiting to be deployed once I have a more permanent set up. 

And if someone is going to pay me to do a thing, then I volunteer. I teach and coach swimming anyway but will be working with primary school kids outdoors on a nature reserve and have taken on some social media tasks for the Green Party.

Busy in a way I like.

I'd study for a Masters in Fine Art if I had the money. Had I taken my late mother's advice I would have done this 20 years ago. I'm a year through the PGCE she said I'd find handy to have. Then again, this is the person who tried to persuade me to return to school, four A'Levels completed, to add science qualifications and become a doctor ... 

We are all influenced and persuaded one way or another. 

Who have you influencers been? Parent? Grandparent? Hero? 

Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Jessica Shier, Saturday, 30 Jul 2022, 16:45)
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Inspiration Teachers Count

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Wednesday, 8 Dec 2021, 13:27

Teacher's matter.

Silvia Macrae Brown runs the life drawing class at Charleston on the first Tuesday of each month. I go along when I can, Covid permitting. I've taken the day off from work in the past to go along. It is just one day. 

It matters to have someone with a plan, especially if it is designed to stretch us. This isn't one of those classes where anatomical exactness created over a single pose over many hours is wanted, rather we have multiple poses, movement, drawing with our non-dominant hand, or with our eyes closed.

Today was different. There is an exhibition of Duncan Grant's work 'Duncan Grant: 1920' showing at the moment.

Duncan Grant's first ever solo exhibition is recreated at Charleston, September 2021 to March 2022

So the plan was to work the way artists at Charleston worked 100 years ago - a life model was a rare treat so what doodles and sketches they made were reimagined into later works, painted onto tiles, cupboards and wall panels.

Duncan Grant's 'Dances' 1925 Charcoal and pastel on paper

Now it was my turn. 

I've always embraced instructions whether from a coach or teacher - however awkward I may feel the challenge of the new can create insight. Today was such a day.

An idea that had been fermenting in the first idea for something to contemplate in the afternoon was brought forward. The model would hold a pose and rotate 45% every minute - that of put her on a rotating plinth. I prefer the short pose. I find 30 seconds is enough. The race is to 'grab' the essence of the pose for future reference. Silvia is a sculptor who often references her own approach to seeking to find the essence of a pose.

Having too much time to think while the model was delayed I put down some ideas for a story set in a life drawing class (model dies during a long pose), and also tried downloading a drawing App to my iPad (too old, not the write operating system), then my phone. A few experiments with a stylus and I gave this up as a lost cause (for today). My son uses swears by an iPad Pro - but I don't have that luxury.

Pen and ink will have to suffice. I use a regular Lamy fountain pen and black ink. I used to swear by an artist's felt-tip but have come to prefer ink on paper for its smudge-ability and inconsistency; I enjoy the fight. Just as I enjoy keeping one step ahead of the blunt pencil by having at least 20 sharpened (with a Stanley Knife, never a pencil sharpener).

I keep all drawings. 

This is a dictate handed down by my later mother who did her MA in Fine Art at Durham University in the 1950s; she studied under Quentin Bell. I will just show a few here to illustrate the progress. Plenty of my efforts fail - I correct minor errors and leave them on a page, with a disaster I abandon the sheet and quickly get back to doing another, and another, and another until it starts to look and feel right. I doubt I discard two sheets of paper in any day long session - usually I draw over, or mark out something that doesn't work. I rarely if ever use a rubber, unless it is being used as a tool in the creation of a particular 'look'. 

This is what is meant about getting your hand in ... like a gymnast or dancer practising moves before a session.

First three poses of a day long session - each poses lasting around 1 minute.

After another go like this and taking note of the instruction to be capturing the essence of the pose I went for something smaller. (Imagine trying to draw a horse, bird or cat that will not be so accommodating! I have tried drawing people in real life, but gave up, unless they were static: on the beach, or watching TV).

A set of eight 1 minute poses as the model changed her pose.

From these the idea was to take a pose and work it up as a single art piece, as bathroom tiles, wall paper or some such as the Charleston artists did (not the reproduction tea towels and place mats you might buy in the shop).

From here, whether or not the model was posing (which felt impolite and potentially a waste of a rare resource) we were invited to take a pose and work it up as a pattern, shape or draft for an artwork. I had a few goes with a single, double and various other repetitions and combinations.

Twisted Arms Pose repeated twice. Charcoal pencil on paper.

And a single pose with colour - something I've rarely ventured into using!

Single pose with twisted arms. Duncan Grant or Matisse Influenced. Charcoal pencil then oil pastels on paper.

This was a breakthrough moment for me. I've only ever thought of a life class to be a period of work that delivers its only outputs at that moment, on the day. That any reworking of something would be a lesser thing - akin to copying from a photograph. How wrong I am. Of course artists are forever gathering up ideas on pads of paper or working with models and items in the studio to work up into a distinct and separate work. 

For lack of ink and seeing a set of blue sheets of paper to use up I went for white charcoal and produced a series of five multiple sketches on single sheets, followed by a few single images. I was beginning to feel confident with what I was able to express with a few simple lines. The skill is to let the hand/arm draw what the eyes are seeing and the brain is feeling. Experience, practice and growing knowledge of where the bones and muscles are helps. 

A selection from six 'white charcoal on blue paper' as an exercise in capturing a set of poses from different angles.

We were then invited to return to a favourite pose and work on this. The model kindly took a number of poses as requested including the 'crossed arms above the head' which I favoured.

Francesca in my favourite pose from the morning's session. White charcoal on blue paper.

We ended the session with a seated pose. Enjoying using the white charcoal pencil I had only grey or green darker papers to choose from. A single pose for 35 minutes I did four sketches in each trying to do little more than get the entire figure on the page without making it too small. I then added the colour based on the model sitting under a bright orange/red heater in the barn where we are working.

Francesca in the same seated pose for 35 minutes. White charcoal pencil on grey pastel paper.




Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Gill Burrell, Wednesday, 8 Dec 2021, 19:18)
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My mother taught Art!!

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You'd think that I would have remembered this earlier than today. Sometimes the thing under your nose is not the thing you recognise. As a trainee teacher I can surely draw on her home schooling me through my 4th A Level in Art. I never saw her teaching though. 

Sketch of the girl I had a crush on when I was 15 or 16

I have to wonder if a girl I had a crush on telling me she would never go out with the son of a teacher embarrassed me so much that I put it to the back of my mind.

Tell me about it? Is the line she so often used to have us open up to talk about our marks on the page.

She taught us art from as soon as we could hold a pencil in our fingers. We each had our area of interest:

  • Big sister: fashion
  • Big brother: cars
  • Me: Portraits, people and landscapes. 
  • Little sister: animals, especially horses.

Life Drawing at Friston Place August 2020

Many decades on I took up life drawing with a vengeance, I've been attending sessions in Brighton and at Charleston for the last four years.

When I draw I hear my mother's tips in my ear.

When I visit a gallery, I hear my mother walk me around.

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