I hope you are well! I’m enjoying spring and the longer evenings - we’ve had some sunny days here and the magnolias are blooming. I’ve just got back from a lovely week in Paris visiting museums, walking along the Seine and signing some prints at Slow Galerie.
One of the prints is of a painting I did from my window in the summer of 2019, when I was an intern at the gallery. I was in love with this view, especially in the evenings. At night the Eiffel Tower would light up, too, and on 14th July (Bastille Day), we watched the fireworks show set off from it!
Now I’d like to share with you something that I’ve been meaning to write about for a while, and that is online life drawing. It was a lifeline at the start of the pandemic, and as I am pretty well isolated in the best of times, it continues to be really beneficial to my practice and sense of community.
It all started with Drawing Life Glasgow. They offered a couple of free sessions at the start of the first lockdown, so despite being a little sceptical (how will drawing a video of someone standing still be anything like the real thing?) I had nothing to lose.
Sure, it was different to “real” life drawing, but it was equally nothing like just drawing from a photo. It was its own thing: the model, albeit in 2D, was present, you could see them breathing. I don’t know why that made such a difference but it did.
Having someone keep time for you is really helpful, too. That sense of urgency pushes you to make quick decisions and leaves no room for doubt.
As those first lockdowns wore on, online life drawing really started to blossom. There were possibilities in a Zoom call that were inconceivable in a physical studio. There were classes where videos of the same model were superimposed so that they could pose with themselves, experiments with lighting and angles, reinterpretations of famous paintings, outdoor sessions, the list goes on.
Amongst all of these innovative classes, the narrative “consequences” sessions with Trixie Divine were a revelation.
In these live sessions, Trixie takes her cues from the participants, who suggest captions based on the previous pose. Trixie chooses her favourite caption and improvises the next pose based on it. Each pose is 10 minutes. Always full of surprises, Trixie moves the camera to different rooms and uses colourful props, and sometimes will even soak her hair in the shower or draw on her body. Her poses are often humorous and always poetic.
Lately I’ve been going to Atelier 3/4, Kreuzberg livestreams. (Note: these are no longer running but they will be re-starting in some capacity again soon). These were hybrid in-person sessions which you could also attend online. At first I wondered how it would work, if you’d be able to see the model well enough etc, but Yuka, who is an artist and life model herself as well as co-running these sessions, made sure the camera was always perfectly positioned.
At the end of each session, David showed the work of those who attended in-person and then there was time for us to show our work. I loved the studio atmosphere and the small, closely-knit community. Not to mention the two sweet dogs, Whoopi and Youpi, who took over from the model during the break.
I have been to two sessions where Yuka has been the model; one with The Renaissance Workshop, and one with London Drawing Group. Both were incredibly inspiring. I highly recommend drawing her if you get the chance!
Life drawing isn’t always about the human body, there are even wildlife sessions! I hired a replay session by Elephant in the Room to draw birds of prey and it was brilliant! Henley School of Art also do animal life drawing as well as their regular guided and unguided sessions.
Now that restrictions are easing, there is a move back to local in-person sessions, and inevitably some online classes are being cut back. However, there are still plenty of them going on every week and I have named only a few. Not only that but many of them have a huge backlog of recorded past sessions available to hire, or photosets to buy. They are amazing resources. I can’t emphasise enough how much online life drawing has supported my practice and I’d thoroughly encourage every artist to try it.
By the way, it’s been almost a year since I sent my first letter to you, when I was first moving to Dinan. Now spring has come back around and it seems fitting that I’m about to move again. Next time I’ll be writing from the Normandy countryside! I’m very excited - more on that soon.
Meanwhile, wishing you sunshine and spring flowers,