Robert Davies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery (What is good drawing?)

There is a fascinating show on at the moment at Wolverhampton Art Gallery by Robert Davies.” Animals” hopes to encourage us to examine our relationships with farm animals and is made up of photo-real large-scale pencil drawings on sheets of Fabriano paper.

 

Curly By Robert Davies , Pencil on paper

 

As interesting as the theme itself is the discussion that these technically excellent drawings provoke. Just what is good drawing? The show is accompanied by a stop motion piece made over a four-week period showing the production of one piece. Craft to be admired and levels of patience and ambition in the scale of project are no doubt admirable. Judging by the reaction of many this is the very definition of “good art” . But if this is great drawing what does that mean for Picasso etc?

 

Bull By Picasso

It would be interesting to hear your views on this?

 

A Participants First Life Drawing Experience – Session Review

If you could give us a standing pose, Briony please.  You have 7 minutes to draw the figure, try to draw the whole figure and use most of the paper.”

We heard that instruction twice at the life drawing taster session.  Once at the beginning and once at the end.  But the differences between the two experiences, and the results on paper, was palpable.

The training room at Fierce Earth’s offices had been transformed from Board Room to studio.  An arc of easels faced a wall and two lovely chairs, recently refurbished by rookie, but talented, upholsterer Jon, were positioned opposite the easels.

The participants were a mix of colleagues, co workers and friends old and new. Some drinks and nibbles put us at our ease as we all fessed up to being a) “useless at drawing” and b) a bit terrified.

But we were in good hands. Dean gave us clear and comprehensible instructions.  We set to work.  Our first drawings were stiff, desperately trying to be representational and “right”.  We admired each others work.  Comments were supportive and friendly. We all relaxed just a little. This was not an embarrassing nightmare, but clearly everyone had room for improvement.

I won’t spoil the surprise if you are ever lucky enough to attend a session but the second full drawing was a very different experience. After a series of exercises designed to teach us not to draw – but to LOOK – we tried to recreate Briony’s standing pose on paper once more..

Concentration levels were higher and the drawings more assured – some astonishingly so.  Everyone found support or encouragement from the group.  A hand that looked like a hand and not a bunch of sausages.  The exquisite curve of Briony’s back rendered just so – the delicious line from her nose, to her upper lip and the rosebud of her mouth traced out on the page so that you knew it was her.

Our second drawings represented small but significant victories over our previous nerves and lack of confidence.

As for my experience I am now hungry to learn more:  have more techniques under my belt – to do more (I try to do a little sketch of anything in an idle moment).  I thought it might be odd or embarrassing to be in such proximity to a life model.  But it really isn’t.  Because they are not embarrassed, so why should you be for them?

In fact if anything it really shifted my perception on the portrayal of female beauty.  We’re so saturated with images of air brushed, waif-like models we have forgotten how beautiful real people are.  And we rediscover that beauty by looking or by really seeing.  It’s rare that you are allowed to hold your gaze on another like that in polite company.  It’s a gift.  So I also want to acknowledge our model Briony for giving us that gift.

Marcel Proust said  “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”.  In two hours in that improvised studio we went on a voyage of discovery together, and are rewarded with the gift of new vision, a fresh perspective and the thirst to know more.

The Life Room at the Royal Academy

Johann Zoffany RA, The Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771-72The Royal Collection © 2009, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

I was lucky enough to visit a friend at the Royal Academy Schools this week. As we wondered around she took us into the Life Drawing Room.  The schools are exciting anyway with huge sculptures from Masters seemingly lying around. I found it mesmerising. The life room though was for me something very special. The sense of history and tradition. The artists that had both studied and taught in that room made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Here is a link to a post that describes the room in some detail with images of the casts

Could you learn to draw? – A Case Study of a Nervous Participant

One of the participants of the drawing sessions that took place with Bryant Priest Newman was Practise Manager Lorna Parsons. Lorna had been involved in the idea of the sessions from the off. I had noticed though that whenever we discussed it she used language that made me think she might not be considering taking part herself. When I broached the subject I belive her response was “er well I am not sure yet”. I encouraged and gave my word that she would be made to feel that it was a safe place to try. I believe lorna’s drawing experience was minimal, not drawn since school. Pressure may have been added by being in a team of Architects some of whom had experience of some sort or another.

The sessions were two hours in length and we did four of them in total. Really only one working day of drawing. On the second we tackled an introduction to measurement and dedicated around forty minutes to constructing a “visual scaffolding” of the figure.

After only three hours tuition this is what lorna produced.

First Measured Drawing(Detail,In progress) Lorna Parsons , 2011

Even by this time Lorna had developed a recognisable elegant character to her work that continued to grow throughout the sessions. Already she is moving beyond cold observation and beginning to express something of herself.

This photograph however is the one that shows the real value of the sessions and makes delivery so enjoyable. I think it speaks for itself.

Lorna’s nervous reaction is made up of  precisely the feelings that the sessions are designed to eliminate. If you can overcome those and learn and even enjoy drawing then perhaps we can challenge all of our pre conceived personal barriers. If we do this as a team , as a shared experience just imagine the effect.

Lorna now intends to pursue drawing and continue to develop her obvious previously undiscovered abillity. I am thrilled to hear it!

Sir Ken Robinson – School Kills Creativity

In this amazing TED talk Sir Ken Robinson talks about the way in which we are conditioned out of the ability to “be wrong”. To take risks and to be creative.

It is this notion that motivates us to give adults the chance to make mistakes and take risks again in the workplace. In fact in any place. To see some of the damage of our conditioning undone in a drawing session is liberating for the participant and exciting for us as educators.

Life Drawing in the Workplace (Bryant Priest Newman)

Bryant Priest Newman Architects have a history of collaborating with artists to inform and invigorate their working processes. They also run a series of exhibitions in their headquarters in Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. We first met to discuss the possibility of an exhibition and to talk about their relationships with artists.

What resulted was a very exciting conversation about mark-making and in particular drawing practise in general. There was desire continue to challenge working methods and to re-engage with drawing on a fundamental level and perhaps most importantly to be “creative” in the middle of the working day.

The result of that conversation are four bespoke life drawing workshops that take place right in the heart of the office space and right in the middle of a working day.

Challenging? nerve racking? Definitely, but with the whole team including senior partners and administrators taking part a shared challenge. Some have not drawn at all since school let alone from a nude model others had varying degrees of experience. All found the challenge of drawing in this way engaging, exhausting and invigorating.

This post serves  as an introduction to what Melbourne & Son does and what it holds as its core belief. That there is genuine value to be found with engaging in the practise of drawing for all.