back to life drawing…

I went to life-drawing on the 5th March 2024.

On the 18th March 2024 I was rushed to the emergencies in the back of an ambulance.

Then it all went blank...

No energy.
No desire.

I am alive.

…

30 weeks later.

Back to life-drawing.

The 30th September 2024, I opened a box containing red pastel dust over my jeans and sweatshirt.

The red streak down my leg immediately moved me to take a photo. 

The poses, short or long merged together on the pages. There seemed little care for separation. There seemed little respect for anatomy. What counted, it appeared, was the energy, the freedom, the lack…of judgement.


I stopped, energy momentarily exhausted. 

I wasn’t sure what had happened. 
I wasn’t sure that I recognised myself. 

I wasn’t sure if I had changed. 

Is this how I had been?

Is this how it had been? 

Is this how I am? 
Is this how I will be? 
Is this how it will be? 

I don’t know. 

I don’t think it matters. 

This is life drawing…

drawn to abstraction.

“All art is an abstraction to some degree.” – Henry Moore

What I love about life-drawing are the rhythms of the poses, the observations, the mark-making, the unspoken dialogue between artists and models. With each pose, I find myself working through a progressively enlarged repertoire of ways of seeing, of orienting myself, as regards the page and the tools.

The greatest challenge is to find simplicity in complexity and to attempt to express the essence of a human form.

Over the past few weeks, I have preferred to use light tones of Conté dry pastels to rapidly sketch out poses. I love to work with bold strokes and often start with light colours. I have the impression that somehow I can get more movement into the gestures. It’s almost as if I was drawing a shadow figure.

The material environment, the platform, the furniture, the drapes of material are taking on a more prominent place. in what are becoming compositions.

The shapes and lines go beyond the figure and the frame of the page as I look for the angles of the poses, the space between the limbs, for simple geometric forms. I find that the model’s body becomes an invitation to appreciate the sensuality of drawing sweeping lines and curves. I particularly love using large blocks of colour both as a means of grounding the body in a material space and to draw poses from the outside in.

That is something that I am discovering, the ability to go from inside the body towards the outside and from outside the body inwards. I have to admit that I am getting hooked on these moments of dialogue, of exploration, of mindfulness.