tomwoodartist

Life Drawing Saturday 2 June 2012

words to follow

Paintings and drawings by Cathy, Chris F, Chris M (two images), David, Dick, Ivan, Judith, Roger, Sandra, Steven, Tom, and Tony.

 

Life Drawing Thursday 31 May 2012

Pencil drawing of Martin by Steve

How many portrait artists does it take to change a light bulb?

One to change the bulb, all the rest to say " I could do that if only the bloody bulb would sit still".  Martin Mor.

He's not wrong, artists who work from models are obsessed with stillness, Algernon, the one eyed, bi-pedal, hunch backed Chinese giant will only be remembered if he's a twitcher, a shuffler, a squirmer, an itcher, we hate movement. Sit still Algernon we all plead, how the hell am I supposed to get the relationship of hump to eye whilst  your one leg twitches, you may well have to hop but for heaven's sake I have to draw ( big sigh combined with diva like strop). Euan Uglow the renowned artist was notorious for his obsession with stillness so much so he devised sets with handles and blocks to brace the model which now after his death and model-less look eerily sinister with a forensic menace about them. And yet in Uglow's defence these damning constructs were necessary in his noble pursuit of truth as demonstrated in accuracy.

Here's the big question, is accuracy truth? Whilst you mull that one over lets take a few steps back to last night.

First thing let's say Martin Mor our model was superb, not a twitch or itch in sight, his only bout of squirming occurred when he attempted to revive his numb nethers by performing a restrained rumba. In his fine black and red stage outfit, handsome beard and confident aura here was a man used to the spotlight and he posed magnificently. If the stand up comedy takes a nosedive his future on the portrait model circuit is assured. My only disappointment was that there were not more people to enjoy the spectacle and rise to the challenge, this really was a unique opportunity missed.

So to the work. We all know portraits are difficult and I daresay you're all familiar with the wonderful quote from John Singer Sargent, when he said, ' A portrait is a painting of a person where there is something not quite right about the mouth'. As a painter of portraits myself, I can but agree, the mouth is the gateway to the soul not the eyes, those blank orbs mean nothing compared to the slightest irregularity of brush in hand which takes a mouth from smile to sneer and portrait from happy go lucky devoted wife to deranged serial poisoner, in a millimetre the commission is lost. But Martin presented us with the double whammy of hidden mouth and generous beard, this was going to be a tricky one. Most succeeded well with just the occassional problem on display but the beard was another issue. Do we generalize and look at the form as a whole, Fiona had no choice, neither did Hadyn as both worked in oils so precision to that extent just wasn't an option, I think Barry and I had a similar dilemma working in acrylics. Tony, Roger H, Ivan and Steve to varying degrees went for the detailed approach where volume was constructed out of countless little scribbles and marks, the accumulation describing the whole.

I particularly liked Steve's approach and his finished drawing which feels all of a piece. To my eyes it has the qualities of a pre-Raphaelite drawing combining precision of execution with accuracy of observation, there appears to be very little and yet the character seems to shine out. Roger S seems able to repeat the same feat in watercolour capturing the pose beautifully. Why does Sandra's work remind me of the Salvation Army? Is it the hint of a uniform, the noble profile and fine William Booth like beard, I just can't shift the idea that this person is having their soul uplifted by a rousing chorus of my favourite hymn. Like Sandra I painted over an old painting, mine was a landscape which resulted in Martin portrayed in his civvies as weekend twitcher (a fellow bird lover) or as Ivan would have it the young Castro! Weekend Twitcher, Young Castro are these eupemism's and if so for what? Either way, shamefully the only acknowledgement of his spendid shirt is a little patch of red on the right of the painting. I also think I've knocked a few years off Martin another old portraitist's trick but the fiver has come in handy. Cheers Martin!

Now back to the question in hand, is accuracy truth?

I think we strive for accuracy otherwise why spend precious time with the model, accuracy is the fixed point our unreliable skills cling to but it's not the gold standard of truth. I think truth is something more slippery. It's about the relationship of artist to model factored by the combination of skills, mood, emotion and opinion. We want to get something, a quality, a feeling, sometimes just the sense of sharing the same space with that person and we want to get that through the skills we have, or more likely the skills we imagine we have. Our varied skills are just the toolbox from which we construct our images. The truth of that encounter between artist and model can only be told by that artist and that model and like the wisdom of the river, we all encounter a different truth and try to express that truth with the accuracy available to us.

See you all tomorrow for a lovely long day of life drawing.

Paintings and drawings by Barry, Fiona, Hadyn, Ivan, Roger H, Roger S, Sandra, Tom, Tony and featured artist Steve.

NEXT TWO SESSIONS.....................................

Martin Mor

Our next session on Thursday 31st May is an unusual session for us. It will be a clothed session with Martin Mor, the comedian as our model. Martin is appearing at this year's Edinburgh Festival and is presently collecting portraits of himself to use in his set. I'm sure he will explain further on the night but it's a great opportunity to do something different - my advice is arrive early, I think this will be a popular session! Starts promptly at 6.30pm.

Saturday 2 June is also one not to be missed as we have a new male nude model Joseph who comes highly recommended from his sessions in Leeds. Starts 9.30am.

Life Drawing Thursday 24 May 2012

On a sweltering hot day .....eleven loyal labourers doggedly climbed to the top floor of the mill and, in spite of the oppressive heat, struggled and toiled towards their shared goal—that of creating a piece of art work based on a human being who is willing to bare his soul.

Our model, Steve, had arrived the most hot and bothered of all after being cooped up onboard a crowded train which was also running late. However, being the consummate professional that he is, he soon regained his cool and remained gracile and poised for the rest of the evening in the most appealing and evocative pose.

In an attempt to cool things down, two powerful electric fans were loaned to us by our friendly photographer neighbour. These are usually the source of models’ glamorous windblown effects so often seen in magazines, somehow it did not manage the same effect on my hairstyle, rather the phrase ‘dragged through a hedge backwards’ came to mind, nevertheless we were after comfort not glamour. Did I really just say that and mean it? Comfort not glamour! Damn it, I did!

Back to the plot, which I am rapidly losing, Lucien Freud said ‘The simplest human gestures tell stories’ and this pose and attitude which Steve struck, though not simple, did seem to tell a story and invoke a sense of introspection and vulnerability, watchfulness and wariness. The form was compact with limbs folded and gracefully almost intricately embracing his body making a very powerful statement. Had I the time to complete this study I think I might for once have actually got it all on within the boundary of the page.

I am pleased to see that featured painting is Fiona’s, the delicate, pale colours on the form and the fragile outline contrasted against the bold blocks of background colour seem to convey so acutely the sense and meaning of the pose.

Cathy’s drawing also fascinates me. The figure on the right being defensive and fragile as suggested by the delicate line work while the figure on the left appears to be Steve’s alter ego bold and fearless.

Tom was working at a very different angle and viewpoint from usual this week. The resulting drawing is beautifully sculptural and captures the folded compactness of a body which has morphed itself into an almost abstract form

All the drawings this week show a degree of fresh inspiration from this stimulating pose and I would love to paint this again in a longer session. I think it may be a pose that only Steve can make work in this way but perhaps the models themselves have a better idea of this than I.

by Sandra Cowper

 

Paintings and drawings by Cathy, Hadyn, Ivan, Roger H, Roger S, Sandra, Steven, Sue, Tom, Tony and featured artist Fiona.

 

Emma Whiting - Exhibition of Latest Paintings

Life Drawing Thursday 17 May 2012

Like the stately swan we glide gracefully onwards with barely a ripple on the untroubled waters and yet beneath the surface our big fat feet are pedalling like the clappers. You may think our weekly life drawing sessions have come to resemble the swan, and yet each week the well oiled routine swings into action but for that to happen urgent phone calls need to be made, frantic exchanges of emails, biscuits need to be carefully selected and bought, cups washed, sugar bowls filled, tables wiped and teabags lined up like little plump soldiers. All this loose talk of clothed models and short poses has not gone unheeded, beneath the surface, high level negotiations have been taking place and prior to the press conference I am able to leak that on Thursday 31st May we will unveil our first clothed model. The session will have a surprising model in the form of comedian Martin Mor. I kid you not, Martin will pose for us as part of a project he's undertaking to assemble as many portraits of himself as he can, these portraits will then form a crucial part of his forthcoming tour. I will let him explain the rest, I daresay you will have plenty of questions and Martin will be ready to answer them.

Roger our ever loyal and inspiring model will be our first short pose candidate on the evening of Thursday 19th July, another date for your diary. This will make for an interesting evening as old buffers like myself will be confronted with a whole set of new challenges, in a strange way I'm very much looking forward to it.

Last night we played hosts to a rare visitor, Julie from Nottingham and Mike. I like Julie's hair, her short bob frames her head perfectly. Somewhere at the back of my mind I had the image of Maurice Lambert's beautiful portrait bust of Edith Sitwell where the hair almost coddles the face. Also Julie rather miraculously managed to keep a gentle beatific smile throughout her ordeal, the mark of a true professional where the smile doesn't fade into a grimace. Although I (as usual *yawn), focused on the head, others went for the not altogether easy pose. Cathy with a fine marker pen, undaunted confronted her large sheet of white paper and like Stanley Spencer she started at the top and just worked her way down. It's an odd way of drawing like a distracted doodle gone ballistic and yet it works most of the time and even when it doesn't she just draws a little addition to be added later. The last time I saw someone draw like this was when I watched an archaeologist record a burial site, the pen objectively tracing each stone and twig meticulously without an ounce of emotion or apprehension. I wonder if under that warm exterior Cathy has a heart of ice, the gimlet eyes and trained fingers of the professional assassin somehow betrayed in each drawing, I think she's a sleeper and I'm going to watch her very carefully from now on.

Haydn did a sterling job on the head but struggled with the subtlety of the pose. Ivan went into wide angle mode with some interesting distortions from his seated viewpoint. I really like the way at times Ivan's work flirts with caricature without committing whole hearted-ly to it. His line is sensitive and thoughtful in a way we don't often see these days, with the cornucopia of materials available to us it takes the ascetic rigour of a monk to restrict themselves week after week to pencil, eraser and white paper. Steven is also monkish-ly inclined but he's sneaked a plum bob into his devotions to ensure accuracy and a touch of flagellation in those quiet moments. I like the way almost imperceptibly Steven's drawings are getting looser, the occasional scribble, stray lines meander now in a way the austere Steven of yore would not have sanctioned. I think the drawings are lovely, I defy anyone to say otherwise but now a little something else is sneaking in, a willingness to follow and not always lead and that surely is a mark of growing confidence. And the notorious plum bob served him well as Steven captured the subtle thrust and weight distribution of the pose beautifully. Russell was another one who got it right, look at the work as a thumbnail  before clicking on it and note how well that elbow juts forward. In the bigger image it's not so obvious as the marks and forms separate but the thumbnail creates the illusion of a view looking at the work across a room. Which brings me neatly to an opportunity to do just that at the North Yorkshire Open Studios where Russell and Bren will be showing their work. I urge you all to pack a picnic and have a day out visiting the studios of our talented friends, I promise you won't regret it!

I would write more (I can almost hear the sigh of relief) but I have high blood pressure and a pounding headache at the moment, the doctor has advised me to rest and avoid stress so I'm going to do just that and lie down with a good thriller featuring a spy called Katia, codename Cathy. Thank you all once again for coming along and joining Tony and I in having fun and making art in the company of a fine model, we couldn't do it without you.

Paintings and drawings by Cathy, Hadyn, Ivan, Mike, Neil, Peter, Roger H, Roger S, Russell, Sandra, Steven, Sue, Tom and Tony.

Life Drawing Thursday 10 May 2012

GREAT SCOTT by Chris Fallowfield

Few of us, I imagine, would choose to be challenged by Scott (he’s a big lad, isn’t he?). But then he was relatively unchallenged by us, with a pose about as anodyne as he could expect: his massive back unbent, shoulders and torso untwisted, hands and feet relaxed. He was faultless in what he was required to do, sitting motionless for a naked portrait opportunity. And the portraitists were once again to the fore. Roger H grimaced and expostulated his way towards a very passable likeness. Neil  (our very own Douanier Rousseau) made his usual charismatic contribution. Tom allowed glimpses of his laser-display like under painting to sparkle amidst his adventurous mark-making; Russell followed him in a similar orbit. Tony produced my favourite of the evening. Unseduced by watercolour’s inherent promise of Serendipity, he applies it with the same spartan rigour as his pencil. The result was entirely in keeping with the steely determination in Scott’s eyes, the firm set of the mouth and jaw.

And so to life-drawing. Sufficient challenge, you might say, to represent the human form in as accurate a manner as possible: about as hard as it gets? Well, a foreshortened leg can certainly present one with a challenge of a sort (quite apart from an unwanted limp). But what about that other sort of challenge that can accompany us to the studio: an awareness of our own mortality, a concern with the transience of our associates, the model, the light, time passing? It could be argued that we should put all this to one side and be objective in our work, but I object to Objectivity. From the ancient sages to particle physicists, from Carl Jung to the perennial infestation of darts on the telly, all are telling us one thing: objectivity is a dangerous illusion, desist! It requires us to somehow put aside our feelings (that which we most prize about our humanity) in order to be, well... objective (i.e. desensitised). Admirable if you’re about to service a lawnmower, but of little use to an artist. We must all have favourite works which affect us emotionally, whilst being technically far from perfect. Similarly, “perfect” work may leave us unmoved. I should confess that Michelangelo’s drawings leave me cold. But accuracy in itself differs from objectivity when it is a means to an end, a tool amongst others (composition, colour, texture...) in our ways of expression. Sorry, I’m rambling, I know I am.

As so often, in a quite inexplicable way, elemental weather outside made its presence felt in our work (and not just through the roof). I was ill-advised enough not to tone down the white paper before starting, and finished with a hastily-constructed tornado brewing behind Scott. Barry had it lashing down in front of him, and Roger S obliged us to peer through a rain-spattered window to make out Scott, and Tony with his own watery reflection. Roger is currently juggling with at least three elements: the geometry of Cezanne, the palette of Mondrian, and the aesthetics of Robert Rauschenberg. Each week he comes closer to a complex amalgamation in his own vision. Sandra again challenged herself by working onto a colour that would enrage a bull, and the resulting powerful image is evidence of physicality versus finesse, finely honed. Incidentally, she must by now have a major collection of unrecorded quickly-executed works which somehow fire her up for the main task, and which are often very beautiful in themselves. Steve continues to be impressive. He has the left leg and arm less detailed, less realised tonally, which allow them to occupy a space of their own. The single line describing the underside of the thigh is a dream. Cathy, Fiona, Ivan, I should not have lumped you together at the end, because your strong, honest work is the very stuff of which a life class should be made.

I’ve finished! OMG!!! (Opprobrium More-or-less Guaranteed!)

Paintings and drawings by Barry, Cathy, Chris, Fiona, Ivan, Neil, Roger H, Roger S, Russell, Sandra, Steven, Tom and Tony.

Time for a Laugh

Life Drawing Saturday 5 May 2012

Life Drawing at Redbrick Mill with our model Sue

Abide with Me by Russell Lumb

 I fondly remember the days when the FA cup final appeared to hold the nation’s attention for the entire preceding week and then from breakfast to bedtime on the glorious Saturday; irrespective of the teams involved. My presence at Redbrick Mill yesterday was a tiny indicator of just how far from our collective affections this sporting occasion has fallen. I therefore make no apologies for insinuating football into my review of Cup Final Day at Redbrick.

Arriving late onto the playing surface, only moderately wetted by overnight rain which had missed the buckets, Bren was forced to take up position as a very deep-lying sweeper, behind a midfield five, marshalled by the evergreen Tom Wood, the Dave Mackay of the Life Room, returning from a debilitating bout of Nobby Virus, but still able to control proceedings without moving out of the centre circle. I gratefully accepted the number 2 shirt, playing overlapping right back, outside Emma’s more conventional right winger. This hitherto unwanted position suddenly presented great opportunity for attacking play, as Sue settled into her defensive formation, rotating her head to the left to present a compact and inviting target.

The first half was tight, professional but subdued, with few chances created by players taking no risks, but, as the kettle’s whistle signalled the break,  The diminutive Emma made a trademark mazy run to produce the single quality move of the game; silky-smooth, balanced yet powerful, bringing the best out of Sue. Imagine the stunned shock when the heartless Anne Hutchison, flame –haired manager and tabloid favourite, withdrew Emma at half time and transferred her  to York City, without so much as a medical!

The game was over as a credible celebration of sublime brushwork, although the team gave 150%, with notable contributions from Bren, shoring-up the defense  like a woman with two heads, and Tony “Xavi” Noble who’s countless sliderule passes were often wasted by off-colour  colleagues.

For me, it was a thrill just to take part, although how I missed the communal baths of the old Wembley stadium, and I wasn’t to know that the imaginary blue vase which I had slipped into my painting  foresaw the lifting of the famous old cup by the Blues of Chelsea within two hours. Spooky or what?  

One sore buttock and everyone else more or less like wet dishrags by Sue Vickerman

Modelling at Redbrick Mill is a cut above. There’s a podium. There’s a cushion. There’s heating. There are breaks with abundant tea and coffee and even choccie biccies.  And there’s a community. It is a favourite life room.

My musings when in today’s comfortably  seated pose turn, eventually, as always, to ‘What is going on in this room?’ The dynamics of the life room: a big subject.  I have taken it upon myself to create an online forum for its discussion, sukithelifemodel.co.uk, and would love Redbrickers to add their views to those already there:  ‘Bloody hard work, scary, frustrating, stressful, and you never get it right,’ says Grassington artist Helen Wheatley, while Doug Binder’s adjectives range through ‘vital’, ‘challenging’, ‘addictive’ and ‘exhausting’, and the life room is ‘an examination chamber [where] an individual can feel totally exposed, suffering anguish should the work be failing or run-of-the-mill… many becoming resigned and bravely turning up week after week, only to suffer much of the same.’

 At half-time today, Tom the great man himself says his painting is a duffer. Oh, the heartache of the life room. Though Tom is not one of those who you think will chuck himself in the Calder. A friend this evening quoted  Tom as saying that ‘he likes to take risks with his paintings and so the occasional clanger is inevitable’. ('And welcome', Tom says through gritted teeth with an unconvincing grin).

 Some punters leave after the morning session, and it feels like those remaining are the stalwarts. Roger H starts to sound as though he’s nearing the end of a marathon. My left hip-bone is boring through my flesh, but no matter, because underlying any suffering is my sheer delight to have accidentally got into this line of work. It so feeds my own creative life. I so enjoy this company. The context for Suki’s next autobiographical saga, THE LIFE ROOM,  will be Yorkshire’s life-rooms and studios, their inhabitants, the interactions between artists and the model, and the works being created. Suki will be collaborating with a photographer for this book – her big 2013 project. Suki? I am Suki The Life Model’s manager/ promoter/ muse and indeed creator.  

 The day ends with my one sore buttock and everyone else more or less like wet dishrags. I have not commented on the paintings. I will leave that to others. Though Suki made some notes in her little black book.

The impressionist's impression of an Impressionist by Tamara Wood

An inspiring model adopting a wonderful pose, the odalisque incarnate, what could possibly go wrong. Well you could stand too far away for starters, in the famous photograph of Matisse with model, he's almost upon the poor girl, proximity seems to be the thing. Now I'm not talking about a closeness so that people talk or models feel uncomfortable, I don't want to violate anyone's personal space as we say nowadays. I don't want to be the man in the lift who's just that tad too close for comfort that would be uncomfortable, no I'm talking about a situation where model and eyesight find a happy medium, detail is seen but pores are not inspected. I needed to be closer and not kid myself that my myopic blur was anything but a blur, you see the problem is I dwell on detail and when I see the impressionist poem that Chris seems to weave from air I look on with envy. The blur seemed like a good strategy to force the impressionist out of me, today Matthew I will be Monet sadly I never will never make the final with this sub standard impressionist's impression of an Impressionist if you see what I mean. So we strive for clarity when really we need artful obfuscation in a good way.

Bren is a natural, the model a medium to tap into those inner spirits, a conduit allowing another self-portrait of the emotions maybe, we won't know but the words might give us a clue, echoes tantalizingly whispered out of earshot, we know they are there but we can't quite decipher their meaning. Russell posits that meaning in a blue vase, the vessel in which a thoughtful composition is held in balance. Roger creates a crystalline watercolour of great beauty, the head delicately poised with eyes of sadness and intelligence, a sore buttock nowhere in sight, it's amazing how a craft so dedicated to truth is capable of such big whopping lies. I think so often when confronting the model we paint and draw ourselves, the cliche of all art is that it is always at some level a self portrait but it's hard not to revert to the Penguin book of Psychoanalysis when looking at this lot. We have the hard edged rationalists vs the dreamy other worldly types, the positivists vs the doom mongers and the flamboyant cross dressers vs the masochistic leather lovers - I might have made the last lot up but then maybe not, you know who I'm talking to Russell or should I say Rusty Springs, doyen of Bridlington's Bingo Hall's.....!

We're all allowed one duff one but it's so frustrating when all the circumstances and stars align to tell you this could be a good one and it just doesn't happen. I would like to try again,I thought the pose was excellent (well done Tony) and the model perfect, maybe a few more shadows would have helped but all in all I got it wrong and wasted a great opportunity, I'm just off for a stroll down to the canal, I may be gone awhile............

Paintings and Drawings by Anne, Bren, Chris, Dick, Emma, Hadyn, Ivan, Roger, Russell, Sandra, Steven, Tom and Tony

 

 

Life Drawing Thursday 3 May 2012

Steven's pencil drawing of Joanne

Calm and equilibrium--- or do I mean Valium? By Sandra Cowper

Once again, primed card in a strong colour, acrylic paint and two palette knives. I’m getting into a rut, producing the same sort of painting, using the same techniques, same materials every week and getting a bit too comfortable and it is not progressing. That direct two way connection of empathy with the model which gives a piece of work freshness, spirit, truth and energy has somewhat dissipated and there feels to be a dis-connect between what I see/feel and what I do.

Is this where I change tack and embark on something completely different, search for other different styles and materials with more immediacy or shall I stay the course and expand on my present position. I am not asking for any solutions, that might confuse me even more, but I find that bouncing it off the screen in front of me, knowing that others will be reading it, enables me to find some of my own answers. I also know that, mostly, there are no easy answers, you have to keep searching and exploring until you find the map where X marks the spot where the treasure is buried. Then only to find you are completely in the wrong part of the island anyway, especially if you are ‘Up North’ and not a ‘member’ of this or a past ‘president’ of that or you don’t know someone with enough millions to buy ‘The Scream’ and you have to do all your own screaming yourself. Oh Heck! Bitterness has just crept in, I’ll just do five minutes Tai Chi to regain some calm and equilibrium--- or do I mean Valium?

Anyway less of the angst and back to last night, Tony organised a well thought out elevated pose which was interesting from all angles and Joanne as ever was such a good still and composed model.

The task of getting the whole figure on to the page is a real challenge and Steven shows how this is done by meticulous and patient measuring, checking and re checking proportions and angles. The result is more than just an accurate drawing, there are construction marks and relevant markers, it’s not a moment in time, as in a photograph, it is a description of the time spent by the artist in commune with his model.

The other side of this coin is a drawing which shows just part of the figure but still fills the page. Ivan’s drawing bravely sets a horizontal only just slightly below halfway, using the stretched out arms, whilst most of the bottom half is blank white paper while still giving the impression of that blank being space filled .It makes a strong yet delicate statement using well seen accuracy of hand and eye.

Tony’s watercolour shows his mastery of the medium with such a lovely choice of colour palette and using almost abstract shapes he defines the form and focuses on the varying shades of light falling on the figure.

Roger uses a different method of applying watercolour; his paintings are lively and loose yet accurate and appealing.

Joanne has such a strong attractive and interesting face and this is shown to full effect in all the portraits.

It is clear to me from the rest of the drawings and paintings that the twist and tension in Joanne’s upper back and the thrust and weight bearing of her shoulders and elbows was an important and compelling feature for those artists.

I have written this after a two hour taster session of crown green bowling, another activity I am thinking of taking up, good for hand - eye co ordination, fresh air and fun. So I now need to lie down in a darkened room to conserve my energy as we have an all day life drawing session tomorrow. I don’t know when I will get time to decorate my front room.

Paintings and drawings by Cathy, Chris, Fiona, Ivan, Neil, Patrick, Roger H, Roger S, Russell, Sandra, Sue, Tony and featured drawing by Steve.

 

A Three Day Intensive Oil Painting Workshop at Redbrick Mill, Batley

Follow the link below for further information or read the QR code.

THREE DAY OIL PAINTING WORKSHOP