Thursday, July 10, 2008

Nudes

The first two are smaller monotone oil and turps studies, using an lot of wiping back to create line and highlights.

Study of Side of Sitting Girl: Oil on Hemp (35cm x 35cm)

Study of Back of Sitting Girl: Oil on Linen (25cm x 20cm)

This is a more worked painting: various thin layers of oil glaze on a textured background. I had intended to keep it rougher, with bolder colours and bigger brushes but got caught up in the delicacy of the model's hands and face and the rest of the picture took its cue from there. It's my first colour work and now I'm keen to do more. Very satisfying.

Sitting Girl with Bracelet: Oil on Hemp (74cm x 52cm)

This last is a bit of an experiment with composition: looking at the model from behind an easel that has her robe draped over it. I'm interested in capturing the drapes of the robe against the roughness of the wood of the easel (also a bit blackened, a victim of the Art Shed fire). I also love the incongruously modern mess of the electrical gear in the background (an air compressor and blue electrical lead!)

We shall see if it works. . . (if the foreground thing is too distracting or mannered, I'll probably re-stretch the canvas on smaller bars, re-framing the composition more conventionally around the girl).

One of the few tutored courses I have attended was a life drawing class, conducted on the first floor of a beautiful but bitterly drafty (it was winter) Georgian terrace near Sydney Gardens in Bath. That was in 1989, just before Bean and I make our first trip down under on a working holiday. The other participants were all awe-inspiring in the quality of their work and the tutor was kindly but stubborn about finding ways to get me drawing in a looser and broader manner (from the 'stand to the side of the paper and draw not looking at it, just at the model' to 'draw the contours in one continuous line, not lifting from the paper' to using jumbo purple and green chalk on black sugar paper, and, my personal favourite, though most disturbing at the time, stick and ink (I did manage to get some of the ink onto the paper, though still twinge when I think of what must have stained the lovely Georgian floorboards).

It was about a 6 or 8 week course, 3 hours every Thursday night: after work at Chapter and Verse Booksellers by the Abbey I'd trudge down a dark and blustery Pultney Street, clutching my A2 portfolio against the wind (it all sounds quite Dickensian now). We had a range of models, young and old, male and female and it was one of the experiences I've probably gained most from, both technically (thank you, ink and stick) and in terms of shaping my interests in art practice.

So I've a soft spot for life-drawing, both as exercises in observation and line, and in creating finished works. People's bodies are endlessly interesting: shoulders and toes and waists are great to draw. I also love seeing how people hold themselves, and the way cast light shapes form and conveys emotion.

I returned to life drawing a couple of years ago, through the CAAS (Central Australian Art Society), which would book 4-6 weeks worth of 2 hour Sunday sessions with a model at the old Art Shed. Not a very auspicious start, as shortly after the first series I attended the shed was a victim of arson. Since then, we've been meeting in a CAAS member's studio whenever we can book a model. Up until recently we'd not found anyone suitable for almost a year, and then a Dutch backpacker responded to our ad. The results are below, based on the 10 minute pose sketches and some photos.

Thanks, Nanda, for responding to the ad: you were a lovely model.

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