Life Drawing last night with Michaela.
There's a nip in the air. How can you tell, look above and there is the clue, the heater made it's first outing probably the first of many and there was a definite nip in the air. I wouldn't say it was chilly more nippy, one or two put on jumpers and mentioned the nip that was in the air, I stuck with a tee shirt because although I could feel the nip it seemed more of a chill to me but there was a definite nip in the air.
Michaela sat very still, you could say frozen to the spot although she mentioned the nip the heater took off the worst of it and just left a chill down one side, it was the side with the bruise. What a bruise, it was a beauty, on her ankle with a definite edge, one side bruise, one side no bruise, a definite line, I've never seen anything like it, apparently she fell over at a wedding but my first thought was maybe she had found herself wearing an unfamiliar heavy coat avoiding the nip that was in the air and had become unstable and fallen over. Winter can do things like that to you.
She sat very still and we drew and in some instances painted, a select gathering of the faithful bowed in concentration. Tony started a new sketchbook with a careful considered drawing trying hard to understand the structure of the hand. Sue, ambitious as ever led the pastel charge with a substantial drawing. The lure of the handmade pastel was irresistible to Hilary who developed her usual delicate drawing into something larger and more colourful. Yvonne short of time launched into her customary large drawing and quickly caught up with everyone else, Andre rang the changes and worked in watercolour on some very porous spongy paper which caused a few problems. With so little size the paper just soaks up the wet paint and it's hard to get a definite edge so drawing with paint is a problem, despite that Andre created a bold colourful piece that both Sandra and Jill admired. They're no strangers to boldness as each week they work on prepared grounds and develop a weave of complex drawing that integrates ground and line. Neil prefers a no nonsense frontal assault, eye to eye combat is his modus operandi, his figures are large, his colors bright, even dark green paper can barely contain them, but they work and collectively make an impressive body of work. I continued in my quest for the perfect little painting in which accurate drawing, colour and brushmark come together to create a credible whole, I'm so far off my intention it's frightening, how can my brain imagine one thing and my hand concoct something so different - it feels like the result of some hideous experiment where instead of acquiring the hands of a dead genius pianist I've got the hands of Bobo the Chimp although in fairness Bobo didn't need to study art for five years he was a natural.
Winter is upon us, the light is fading fast, the birds are eating winter rations and there is a definite nip in the air, probably be on two heaters by next week.
Wrapped up warm were, Andre, Hilary, Jill, Neil, Sandra, Sue, Tom, Tony and Yvonne.
