Category: Dulwich Art Group News

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What lies beyond the doors of uncertainty?

This is a drawing by Kate Langley from last Tuesday’s Fast Drawing group, it’s a great drawing but what is also notable is the way Kate has embraced the anarchy of the exercise and worked with the random marks produced. Here’s what she says on Instagram:

“Last night was my first Fast Drawing Class @dulwichartgroup – and what a rollercoaster it was!
We were told to use our left hand to apply a wash of watercolour or ink to suggest contours, then use our right hand to define areas with pen, charcoal etc. Oh, did I mention the model moved (albeit slowly) all the time??! So, if you click through the 6 sketches you’ll probably think I was at some sort of orgy/depicting the ascent of (wo) Man/ at a murder scene or meeting Quasimodo!!

At first I hated it – I am too competitive – but gradually hysteria set in and it was soo liberating, in a mad way! I even like my first attempt (6) best. Thanks to Simon and dancer Lorea for their patience and good humour.”

It also shows what value we can get from working on Zoom during Lockdown. Not many of us would choose to work this way (some do) but as a way of pushing ourselves and our art it definitely works.

Kate is an experienced artist who understands that we are best rewarded if we constantly nudge at the doors of uncertainty. If you have a little less experience and want to learn more about how to draw the human figure think about joining our:

Introduction to Life Drawing

This is a ten week course on Thursday evenings between 6.30-8.30pm delivered by Daisy Perkins. It takes you from the absolute basics, from how to hold your pencil through to proportional drawing with tone (shading). It is a lightning tour of a range of methods used by many artists. Our philosophy is that we show you a whole toolbox of approaches and encourage you to press on with the ones that work for you.

It’s probably the most thorough short course in drawing available and at the moment it is delivered entirely on-line. The next term starts on January 7th, the class size is limited so that we can give you personal attention so now is a good time to sign up. Read more here

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Abatements and Augmentations and You

Zoom and Plein Air Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

Tuesday and Friday morning Pleinairists
Tuesday Afternoon Short Pose Drop-in Life Drawing
Wednesday Afternoon – Drop-in Portraiture
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting

Abatements and augmentatations

We would never boast about being quick on our feet but we’ve had our fair share of shimmying in the last few months. First we had to notice that our business was closed down overnight. Then we had to reinvent ourselves as a digital studio delivering courses and drop-ins with Zoom and now we are looking at welcoming back physical humans into our space. So whilst the rest of England slumbered on a Sunday afternoon we were busy marking out the spaces for our studio to keep artists safe from each other. I’ve never felt that safe standing next to an artist so the plastic screens we are putting up may be an enrichment beyond expectation. Sinks are also going in to the studio to help with compulsive hand washing.

Being in the studio

The plan is that along with all the usual Covid19 masking, washing and sanitizing you will be able to paint the model separated by transparent pvc screens. Using this system we will initially invite eight artists to be in the studio and see if we can all behave ourselves. We will also have a spot for the camera so that if you still want to isolate, Zoom is going to continue to be an option. You will have to book a place online in advance so it won’t really be a physical drop-in anymore but it will be fun, the explosion of endorphins you will experience being in front of a flesh draped model amongst cheery artists will be the highlight of the week, at least it will be for me.

The first week of this is scheduled for the first week of September.

Tuesday afternoon short poses

We’ve nipped an hour off the end of this session, as it turns out three hours is a long time to work from a screen so we’re losing the last hour. Tuesday afternoon short poses now runs from 2.00pm-4.00pm

Tuesday evening life drawing

We are also introducing an evening Zoom session on Tuesdays from the 25th August. It will be run by Freya Tate, (who we will be seeing quite a lot of this week as a model but she is also a wonderful artist with a sharp eye and a playful line.) The session will be life model focused but Freya will introduce chaotic elements to challenge you and move your drawing on to higher levels. You can see more of Freya’s work here @freyatateify

Painting in Provence – 

  • 20th – 26th September 2020 with Benjamin Hope
  • 27th September – 3rd October 2020 with David Sawyer

Quarantine anyone?

It seems that the government is intent on making it as difficult as possible for us to have a painting holiday. Here at the Dulwich Art Group we do try to be good citizens so we do not question the Covid advice given, but really!

The current position is that if we go to France we will have to quarantine for 14 days upon our return. By September it is quite possible that the situation will have changed but we cannot tell. The French government is saying that it will impose reciprocal measures so I suppose that means that if we go to France we may have to quarantine there too. I’m not sure if you’re allowed to quarantine with other painters in a nice house in the Luberon, they haven’t made that clear yet.

So for the while we sadly have to put our plans on hold, not cancelling, just waiting and seeing. We intend to do this and if we have enough people with the will to travel at the right time in September, we’ll go for it. We even have options for October so one way or another…

Pleinairists with David Sawyer RBA

David’s message:

Hi
Hope you had a good morning painting on Friday, looking forward to seeing some of the paintings posted up
The weather this week isn’t set to improve until Friday, I’m suggesting the lake at Beddington park for Friday morning if there isn’t much sun there’s always reflections to paint, if any of you have other ideas post them up.
Hope we can meet up this week.
David


David Sawyer, Church Tower at Salle

If you are interested in painting along with David the Cost is £35 per session, which lasts approximately three hours. We use our Pleinairists Whatsapp Group to coordinate.

These are small groups where social distancing is maintained throughout.

Sign up here

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-4.00pm on Zoom

Freya is modelling for us this Tuesday afternoon. The top picture is one of her own life drawings because, as is often the case with life models, Freya is also an artist. (And also because she has agreed to run an evening session for us on Tuesdays from the 25th August)

You will also notice this session now runs from 2-4.00pm and as we don’t have many people joining in the second hour we will consider doing longer poses in the second hour, the first hour will be fast poses, they are hard but they are so good for us!

You can choose to join us for one or two hours and as we’re still rolling this out the charge will only be £2.50 per hour. To get the special price use the discount code PESTE1 at final check out when purchasing the session.

Click here to book

Wednesday Drop-in Portraiture 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Holly is an interesting woman, having spent the last few years of her life planning, installing and testing climbing walls around the country in her capacity as a boulderer. She is also a sculptor, a life model and a madly vigorous cyclist. We will have her sit still for a bit with us this week and next whilst we fashion a portrait of her. Look at her sculpture here:@hollykilohduce  and watch her climb impossible things here

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

Saturday Drop-in Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

As we don’t have any decent photos of Freya, (you can se her face above on Tuesday’s entry) here is a work in progress from the last time she sat for us. She will be with us this week and next.

A single pose life session delivered over Zoom.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.