From Life - Royal Academy

Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Charles Pugin,Drawing from Life at the Royal Academy,
(Somerset House), 1 January 1808

There were some good things in this exhibition but overall, a bit disappointing. Not enough variety of work, not enough history etc. The film of Chinese students drawing a huge head of David was good, as were some of the 19th Century paintings of life classes at the RA. Amusing in a Giles cartoon sort of way; some of the students didn't seem to be paying attention or looked decidedly bored. Also wearing hats indoors. You have to feel for the models who must have been pretty cold.

Exhibition continues until 11 March.
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/from-life



Zoffany



Unidentified artist, A Life Class, Early 19th century?

Oil on canvas, 987 X 1347 X 25 mm

Formerly attributed to William Hogarth.

Unidentified artist, A Life Class, Early 19th century?

Oil on canvas, 987 X 1347 X 25 mm

Formerly attributed to William Hogarth.

Tuesday life drawing

 Didn't have time to prep etching plates for this week's session so it was literally back to the drawing board. Drawing smaller this week, charcoal in an A2 sketch pad. Not too happy with these. Hopefully back to the etching plates next week.

Tuesday life drawing is back

 This term's life drawing started up this week. Made three A4 drawings on tissue over a soft ground so that should give me something to work with for a while. Three plates on the go at once! Four if you count my Small Faces. New way of working for me.

Definitely feeling rusty after the Christmas break but one of the good things about this way of working is that it doesn't matter if the drawings aren't any good - I can just remove the bits I don't want.

Life drawing again!

Had a great day last Saturday; a full day of life drawing and painting at the Art Gallery with Brian, the tutor from the Hamble classes. It was a really good session - good to paint again having not done so since before Christmas. This painting is just a sketch really, done in about an hour in a half. Must try to get ore of the background in next time.

20 minute pose

20 minute pose

Bridget Riley: Flashback

I had an interesting afternoon at Southampton City Art Gallery taking in the Bridget Riley exhibition, Bridget Riley: Flashback. The show covers work from the early 60s up to more or less present day and includes some of her preparatory studies. These, many of which were plotted out on graph paper, took me right back to my to my student days at art school when most of my images were created using mathematical systems. Whereas the other students could be seen carrying sketchbooks, I was usually brandishing a pad of graph paper. Very different from the kind of work I’m making now.

There was a selection of books on Riley for browsing at the exhibition; ten or twelve with her customary op art images on the front. I was immediately drawn to the one with a conte sketch of a woman on the front. It seems that Riley was an ardent portrtaitist and spent her three years at Goldsmiths drawing, drawing, drawing from life. Although her work changed direction dramatically in the early 60s when she began to produce the sort of images she is so well known for, this early experience of looking and drawing has been crucial to the way she has worked throughout her career.

'A great deal is involuntary. At best the drawing seems to unfold on the paper almost by itself, the hand being directly guided by the eye. Drawing is an exercise in looking: one finds out what can being seen and at the same time one finds oneself having to organise the visual and emotional information extracted. How to sort out and clarify this confusing wealth?'

Bridget Riley, From Life

Cataract 3, 1967