Category: Newsletters

Clare Haward: A Year in Review

Self Portrait in Green, Oil on Linen, 65 x 50cm, 2020

Clare Haward, who some of us are lucky enough to have learnt from has a good article about her up on Artsy.com along with some rather brilliant paintings, like the one above. She is working with a stronger narrative and larger, her sense of colour harmony and the careful arrangements of shapes will be more familiar.

Clare Haward: a Year in Review

“A year since her inaugural solo exhibition at 155a Gallery, South London based artist, Clare Haward, has generously agreed to ‘open the doors’ to her studio and share with us some of her practice over the past year. The selection includes works in progress and drawings alongside finished works. Clare would like to thank Elizabeth Greenshield’s Foundation for their support. 155a Gallery looks forward to exhibiting Clare’s recent work in June 2021.” More here

Fresh off the Box Easel – St James Park by David Sawyer this week.

David Sawyer’s Architecture in the Landscape course is starting this week on Thursday Mornings 10.00am-1.00pm and there is still time to sign up – you can come to the studio or join in on Zoom. It runs for six weeks and will give you a good grounding in getting the architecture to work for you in your paintings.

Read more here

Monday Evening Bad Drawing Group 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Valeria

Daisy will be helping us to draw badly this week. Why not join us for some stimulating non-judgmental art making from the naked human figure? We will have model Valeria, young and lissom, making the shapes and Daisy will exercise your creative mind with left field visual activities to bring life to your work.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

If you want to come to our Covid safe studio you may but please email us to make the booking – it’s not on the website yet!

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email
Studio attendance is £10 – please email us to book.

Click here to book

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing with Freya 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Elettra

Freya will be giving you some exciting new things to do with your pencil. Her model is Italian Elettra, pictured above. This creative session usually has short poses and then longer ones, it’s fun and unconventional, drawing from the human figure; always keeping things fresh. This Tuesday Freya is going to be looking at how we perceive movement, is it a flow, a series of flash frames, do we get the whole figure or significant parts? and so on. The model will be moving for some of these poses, Elettra is a dancer so that makes things a bit easier.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Bela by Jane Lawrence

Bela

The second week with Bela, we started before the half-term break. The picture at the top is by Jane Lawrence. Looking at Jane’s recent paintings I think lock-down is suiting her!

This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Valeria by Laurence Cutts

Valeria

This will be the second session with Valeria in a seated pose as illustrated by Laurence Cutts, above. We have two cameras so that you get a wider view of the figure, as painted by Laurence and a closer shot that crops in just below her boobs.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The Zoom session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

Architecture in the Landscape with David Sawyer RBA

St Martin’s in the Fields – David Sawyer

Thursday Mornings 10.00am-1.00pm

Learn how to paint the built landscape with one of Great Britain’s finest exponents

Architecture is an important element in David Sawyer’s work. Known primarily as a landscape painter many of his paintings feature buildings either as the subject or as compositional devices. He has a way with buildings, he can conjure them from a few strokes of his brush. He conveys the complexity of their structures with a breathtaking deftness and economy and yet fully communicates the spirit, weight and presence of these pervasive masses of stone and steel.

Over six weeks David will be sharing the secrets of how he works and helping you to paint buildings and architecture with confidence. He will help you put in place the ideas, perceptions and tools you will need to bring architecture to life in your paintings and drawings.

This course takes place in our Covid safe studio but you can also attend through Zoom if you prefer.

Read more here

Next week is half term

Next week is half term, we’ll be taking a rest and getting things ready for the second half of term. It’s one of the great ironies of this time that the world is divided into those who are stuck at home on nearly full pay whilst the rest of us are running around like decapitated fowl having had our income streams decisively severed! If you’re in the first group, the activities of the second may have made your confinement more tolerable and I know that everyone in the creative community is deeply grateful for your support.

We, however, are in the second group and golly have we been busy trying to build up our business. We are now offering hybrid sessions so that most of what we offer can be had either in the studio or digitally using Zoom. Both ways have their advantages. Clare Haward and Alex Tzavaras have adapted their teaching so that it is delivered via Zoom. Because the students are working in their own spaces it genuinely brings the teaching home and supports the ongoing personal practice of each artist. David Sawyer will be running a hybrid session (see above), we’ll see how that works.

We no longer have drop-ins but life drawing and painting sessions can be attended with little or no notice by booking on the website.

One benefit of the new system is that now that artists have to book we can choose how many to have in the studio, something we have yearned for before but about which there was much resistance. Artists seem to like the freedom of deciding to turn up whenever; from an administrator’s point of view that’s always been a challenge. At the moment we cannot take more than 15 in our studio so there’s no overcrowding and you know what you’re going to get – so that’s progress of a kind.

Next week we’ll all be restoring the tissues and bracing ourselves for whatever happens next, another lockdown maybe? No matter, we are prepared!

Monday Evening Bad Drawing Group 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Valeria

What with one thing and another Monday came and went. We had antipodean circus performer Jem posing for us, giving us some nice extended stretches and shapes. We practiced memory drawing, only briefly but enough to discover that actually all of our drawing with the exception of blind drawing, is actually done from memory. With the ready access we now have to images and models we can forget that many artists had to work partly or entirely from their visual memory. Rather like a pianist reading sheet music, where the manuscript leads but much of the nuance is informed by memory, when we draw the figure our memory and understanding of the form can be just as important.

Next week is, of course, half term so here is a picture of Valeria who will be our model for Bad Drawing on the 26th October

You can join us then on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

If you want to come to our Covid safe studio you may but please email us to make the booking – it’s not on the website yet!

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email
Studio attendance is £10 – please email us to book.

Click here to book

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing with Freya 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Rodin’s gesture drawing

Adrian gesturing

Freya will be looking in to the use of gesture with particular reference to Rodin. That does not mean we’ll be doing the Thinker or the Kiss, lovely though they are but rather becoming excited with the way in which he explored his subject in two dimensions. Rodin drew a lot. His drawings have a freedom and fluidity that we can learn from. Unlike some sculptors who think out their three dimensional statements on the two dimensions of paper, he tended to draw directly with clay, possibly referencing drawings of his model from different angles. His more sculptural drawings tended to be illustrations of his completed works.

Our model is Adrian.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Bela

We had Bela sit for a figure painting session a few weeks back and whilst we all enjoyed painting her it was the power of her face that captivated a lot of us. So we’ve invited her back to sit for a portrait for this week and next.

This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Valeria

Valeria will be our model for this Saturday and the one following the half term on the 31st October. Valeria has a gamine figure and will probably be a bit sun-kissed having returned recently from Greece, her homeland.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The Zoom session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

When will I be able to draw?

Paul Klee – the Ghost of a Genius

Have you ever felt like an impatient child asking “when will we be there?” when reviewing your progress as a draughtswoman/man? It does seem that learning to draw is an endless task and we never quite get to where we want to be. And if we ever imagine we have, we are quickly suffocated by our own smugness. We prefer the uncertainty of new artistic challenges to resting on the laurels of past achievement. I thought it was the book Zen and The Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance that coined the idea that “it’s not the destination but the journey” (Google suggests not!) but whatever, it’s a helpful, if hackneyed notion. And a very good book.

The thing is that the more we draw, the more we see. As our journey progresses, so our elected destination changes. Many of us start out aspiring to draw so well that “it looks like a photograph” and as we approach this goal discover that what we actually want is so much more than that. Holding to the practical idea that we must have an aim whilst knowing that the target will always move is a bit more Zen than most of us feel comfortable with. We can, of course look back and review where we have been and what we have learnt, which may give more insight about where we are going than any imagined future.

In the mean time, relax in the knowledge that we will never be able to draw and we will never get there. Just keep drawing and enjoy the Journey.

Pleinairists (without!) David Sawyer RBA

David Sawyer – Chartres Cathedral WIP

David is warming up for his ‘Painting Architecture’ workshop which he’ll be running for six weeks starting on the 29th September by painting some fine buildings in France

Whilst David is away the Pleinairists Whatsapp group are meeting up on an ad hoc basis, rain permitting, no charge, just painting companionship. Drop us an email to be included.

Monday Evening Bad Drawing Group 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Adrian

Last week Hannah gave us cyclical moving poses and we were invited to watch her carefully for a while, getting used to the rhythms and extents of her movements. We then drew her on the fly. She made it a bit easier for us by pausing every now and then. The images build over the course of the pose, each chosen key image emerging one fleeting observation at a time. Like many of the bad drawing exercises it can reveal to us important aspects of how we work, like how drawing takes place rather than being done.

It may even show the terrifying redundancy of the one who believes themselves to be drawing!

This week we will, by contrast, be working very slowly and encouraging a very intimate physical/visual experience of the model, who will be Adrian @modbodadrian

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

“Memories of Julia’s party” Freya Tate

Elettra

The top picture is a painting by Freya (it’s for sale on her Instagram feed) which shows her puckish way of working. She stops once the statement is made and goes no further, leaving the arrangement with the abandonment of a teenager’s bedroom. I didn’t go to Julia’s party, but it looks quite fun.

Freya will be working with dancer Elettra this Tuesday, looking at symmetry and opposites. If you are joining us could you have two different coloured pens?

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Hugh

This is the second week of a two week pose with Hugh. The WIP above shows the view from the wide camera.

This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Rebecca

Rebecca by Isabella Ward

Rebecca by Jane Lawrence – the view from Zoom

We’ll have Rebecca back to complete this pose this Saturday morning. Three hours on the same pose. You can join us in the studio or on Zoom. The top drawing is by Isabella Ward from the studio and the lower one is by Jane Lawrence using Zoom.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The Zoom session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

Looking

Albrecht Dürer – Laughing Peasant Woman: a lot of looking going on here.

As artists, one of our highest octane fuels is the simple act of looking. Looking engages the visual organs and engorges them with sweet wet creative fluids, fecund with ART.

The easiest way to sharpen the act of looking is to look at what delights us and then to DRAW. Recording what we see, either in a straightforward academic way or in a way that responds to feeling, context, shape, proportion, colour, value, texture, rhythm and so on, restructures our neurology; reinforcing our visual acuity in a divine loop.

It is not enough to just look, we must record, reflect and look more, record again and show and share. It’s what we do and the process marks us visual artists out as super-beings with hyper senses who must save the insensate world. We must show what we have seen, it is our gift and our duty.

If you fancy saving the world and doing some drawing with excellent models like Rebecca and Hannah why not join us this week on Monday or Tuesday? We use Zoom for these sessions, but the models are most definitely live with us in the studio.

On Monday Simon will be drawing badly to explore how creativity arises through observational drawing.

On Tuesday Freya will be being quirky and asking you to do surprising things with your pencil.

Pleinairists (without!) David Sawyer RBA

David Sawyer – Venice, departing tourists

David will be running a workshop for us on Thursday mornings when he returns from France after half term. The focus will be painting architecture, something he does exquisitely well. When you look at how he handles complex urban landscapes you notice how un-laboured the images look, how fresh and light. Of course he’s massively talented but understanding how and where he makes his economies can inform our own work to good benefit.

If you’ve ever painted landscape and become frustrated at how to express buildings (that’ll be me!) or you get drawn into slavish description in a way that sucks the joy from your work, make a mark in your diary.

Whilst David is away painting in France the Pleinairists Whatsapp group are meeting up on an ad hoc basis, no charge, just painting companionship. Drop us an email to be included.

Monday Evening Bad Drawing Group 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Tonight’s session is with Hannah and will be hosted by Simon. Hannah is a dancer so we’ll ask her to go through some dance moves for us. Some poses will be dynamic some will be static so plenty of opportunity for happy accidents.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Rebecca 

Freya will be hosting again this evening and getting us to try new ways of working. The model is dancer Rebecca who enjoys pushing the envelope.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Hugh

We have veteran model Hugh sitting for our portrait session this week and next. It’s always a pleasure working on a face that has a lived in feel.

This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Rebecca

Rebecca is a dancer who has been giving us some very lively poses in our short pose groups. She will be taking up a longer pose, three hours to be precise, this Saturday. She still has a suntan from her Italian Summer so lots of golden tones. You can join us in the studio or have just as much fun without the fresh coffee on Zoom. We have two cameras, one close on head and shoulders, one wide. We also have a studio view so you can get a feel for what’s going on.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The Zoom session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

gestalt

Bad Drawing – Draw Badder to be Better

It’s ironic isn’t it, that sometimes we have to forget what we know to learn something new. Sometimes we have to be a bit bad to be good. Bad Drawing on Monday evenings embraces the freedom to make mistakes, to make a bit of a mess to recover our mojo or just freak out for fun.

Tonight we have very excellent dancer Rebecca who will be giving us poses along the theme of shock and fear whilst we will be encouraged to explore drawing with both and each hands. At the moment, due to various upheavals, Simon will be running the sessions. It’s called the Bad Drawing group but you don’t have to be bad at drawing to join us, just have an aspiration to be a bit worse.

Join us to paint in our Covid Safe studio 

You may know that we’ve gone to great lengths to keep artists safe whilst working from a model in our studio. We take your temperature on entry (don’t worry, it’s not Nurse Packer snapping on some latex gloves to pop a thermometer in where it’s not wanted, we keep our distance and use an infra red device), invite you to sanitise and escort you to your work station. Once at your easel you are separated from other artists by transparent PVC screens so you can remove your mask and get on with your work safe from droplet intrusion. You can still chat away through the screens and when away from your workstation, just observe normal social distancing etiquette.

At the moment you can sign up for Wednesday’s portrait group and Saturday’s life drawing and painting. If you want to come along to Monday and Tuesday evening life drawing in the studio, drop us an email and we’ll arrange it manually whilst our bookings system is being updated to reflect the changing reality.

Pleinairists (without!) David Sawyer RBA

The Labyrinth Garden – Laurence Cutts

Whilst David is away painting in France the Pleinairists are meeting up on an ad hoc basis, no charge, just painting companionship.The fine painting above was done by Laurence Cutts last Friday in the Labyrinth Garden in Ruskin Park

Join up with other plein air artists – drop us an email to be included on the Pleinairists Whatsapp group.

Monday Evening Bad Drawing Group 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Tonight’s session is with Rebecca and will be hosted by Simon. Rebecca is a dancer and she will give us some expressive poses themed around shock and fear. We had such fun working with Freya last Tuesday where she introduced two handed drawing we will be working with the left hand and with both hands, just to shake our rivets loose.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Adrian 

Freya will be hosting again this evening and getting us to try new ways of working. This session is just one and a half hours of intense life drawing, perfect for getting a virtue rush before supper and stimulating the visual organ in a quite indecent fashion. Expect music, lights, action.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Rebecca WIP by Bukie Kawano

This is the second week of a two week sitting with Rebecca. She has a very captivating face (see a close-up in the image for Monday evening) and has perfected the art of posing with her mouth slightly open, which can work very nicely in a portrait.

This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio. Zoom fee is £15, in-studio fee varies.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Elizabeth by Isabella Ward and Ben Smith

The second week with Elizabeth in a seated nude pose. Whilst still a teen, Elizabeth has a gentle sophistication which we loved: she has great poise. You may know that you can join us in the studio to paint her or work remotely from Zoom, either way you’ll get three hours of quality painting from a living model.

Please book here

The Zoom session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

The Autumn Term

Sign up for these excellent courses starting now:

Claire Haward oil painting using Zoom on Mondays all day and Friday mornings
Alex Tzavaras portraiture course with Zoom on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings
Daisy Perkins Introduction to Life Drawing through Zoom on Thursday evenings.

IRL – a new acronym for the socially distanced. ‘In Real Life’ life drawing has become our most fervently requested session over the Zoom filled months of isolation, actually being in a studio with a living nude model. We’ve all been surprised at how good Zoom sessions can be. We all love the international networking and unusual angles. We’ve discovered ways of working in our own space and the graphic possibilities of using 2d source material. But the thing about life drawing is that the other artists are often just about as important as the models. We value our models hugely but there is a complex flow of energies in a life drawing group which amounts to more than the sum of the parts. We look, we learn, we josh; most importantly, our work proceeds better than it may do by ourselves. It seems that working in the company of other artistic souls, particularly when our observation rests on the living flesh of another human being, is not only excellent fun but brings huge benefits to our work.

But the heinous virus has halted all that. Until now.

We are now opening up our studio for IRL sessions. These are much smaller groups than the old days and you will be separated from your fellow artists by a transparent screen so you can remain Covid safe whilst you paint and draw. We’ve trialled the system over the last couple of Saturdays and it works exceedingly well. It was brilliant to see wonderful real people with smiles, arting away happily in the transformed studio.

We also had the cameras running, with artists painting along from home on Zoom, which still works very well for some artists.

So now you can join us on Zoom or in person, it’s up to you and you will be welcome whichever way you choose.

A screen grab from last term with Daisy teaching the line of action

Introduction to Life Drawing

If you’re new to life drawing and find that your drawings don’t really go in the direction you want them to, or you’re pretty good but know you could be better, why not sign up for this term’s Introduction to Life Drawing? It’s a well proven course that will get you drawing the figure confidently and fast. It works very well over Zoom, which is how we’re delivering it this term. In your own space the only thing you need to give your attention to is the model, the tutor and your drawing. You get theory, demonstration, practice and personal critique. The course runs for ten weeks starting this Thursday. 7.00pm-9.30pm

Our tutor is artist Daisy Perkins

Book here

Pleinairists (without!) David Sawyer RBA

Ornamental Grasses, Salvias & last of the Cardoons – David Sawyer – from last week’s Pleinairists’ outing.

David is now in France for the rest of the month, he will be back later this Autumn to host more outdoor painting sessions and to run a ‘Painting Architecture’ workshop.

In the meantime you can join up with other plein air artists – drop us an email to be included on the Pleinairists Whatsapp group. I think they may be meeting up this week, Friday the 18th has been mooted.

Monday Evening Bad Drawing Group 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

We have Adrian as our model for this session of bad drawing. Tonight will be a fun session where we can engage the more playful side of our art and make images without fear of judgement. If you’ve never drawn, this will kick the process off, if you draw a lot this might give you new perspectives or the chance to try something new. This evening’s session will be run by Simon Dunstan.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Hannah wondering what to wear..

Hannah is our dancer model this evening. Hannah studies at Laban and has a classical ballet dancer’s figure.

Freya will be facilitating this short pose session conducted via Zoom. Last week we had coloured up-lights and this week Freya will invite us to use both hands for our drawings.

You can join us on Zoom from 6.45pm and get to know us and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Rebecca wetting her feet.

Rebecca is a dancer too, hailing from Italy where she has spent the summer. She will be our portrait model for the next two weeks.

This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please note that it is now possible to paint from life in the studio but the technology is lagging a bit so you cannot yet book online. If you’d like to come into the studio for this session could you drop us an email and we’ll arrange it directly with you. The fee will be £25.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Elizabeth going all Norwegian

We will have Elizabeth for this week and next. She is new to us and I have no biographical detail to hand but her photos show her to be young with a boyish figure, I’m sure we’ll enjoy painting her.

So we will have two weeks of the same pose, you can join us over Zoom or actually come into the studio (Yay!)

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

The Autumn Term

Sign up for these excellent courses starting now:

Claire Haward oil painting using Zoom on Mondays all day and Friday mornings
Alex Tzavaras portraiture course with Zoom on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings
Daisy Perkins Introduction to Life Drawing through Zoom on Thursday evenings.

Nothing goes smoothly these days does it? Having got off to a flying start on Saturday with eight artists in the studio and Zoom running alongside, we’ve had to cancel the first session of the Bad Drawing group due to wasps! We’ve had an issue for a while with the little perishers making free with our studio space. They seem to be pretty benign but try telling that to a naked life model as they buzz around their pinker parts. We think most of the ones that come into our studio are drones, you know, the male of the species. With no shelves to put up in the hive the drones exist for one purpose alone and once that essential and probably quite enjoyable task is done it’s sort of ‘see ya!’ and they drop dead on our studio floor.

Any way the Wasp Man finally came (they only kill wasps on fine days and there haven’t been many of those) and committed an act of chemical warfare on the little fellows. The smoke bombs he uses are so noxious we have to leave the studio for 24 hours, so that was Bad Life Drawing cancelled for this week. It will be back next week so if you fancy some disastrous drawing to unleash your creativity pop it in your diary 7.00-8.30pm Mondays on Zoom and soon in the studio.

Jason by Alex Tzavaras

Portraiture is not an easy activity, not only do you have to draw and paint to a high standard, you have to catch a likeness of your sitter whilst they very often don’t sit still. It’s not easy but much of the craft can be learnt, and one of the best teachers in the UK is Alex Tzavaras. Alex has been teaching with us for a few years now and sharing his rigorous method, which is probably one of the quickest ways of getting professional results with your painting. He takes complete beginners on Tuesday evenings and then moves on to working from a model on the Wednesday evenings. You can see his way of doing things on his Youtube channel. Thanks to the up-in-the-airness of things at the moment, we’ve put the start of Alex’ term back a week so you can still sign up for either course here.

Freya by Agata Michalczak

Agata Michalczak joined us in the studio on Saturday and produced her usual high standard of work. She has a painting in the @royal_institute_watercolours exhibition at @mallgalleries of Freya. You may remember the pose on jade green satin.

If you’ve wandered down to Ruskin Park lately you may have seen a chap hacking away at the huge fallen bough from the Turkey Oak. He’s called Morgan and he has a small window to finish the work so he’s looking for help. If you have some experience with a wood gouge and fancy giving him a hand, wander down and say ‘Hi’ or give him a ring on 07946 236 855. Morgan turned a tree stump on Peckham Rye into a totemic sculpture, which you may know.

Pleinairists with David Sawyer RBA

Norfolk landscape near St Benet’s Abbey – working up from a study by David Sawyer

This week will be the last chance to paint with David for a while. He will be running some studio based workshops later this term but after Friday it will be ‘ta-ta for now’.

David writes:

“Hi
The weather is looking settled for this week
I’m planning a couple of days out painting. Tuesday morning in Norwood Park, I’ve not painted there before but have been told there’s good views towards the city
Friday morning it will be back to Ruskin Park, it will be my last session for a few weeks as I’m off to France to check out my house in the Pyrenees before winter sets in, hope to be back in London & out painting again mid October
While I’m away you can use the Pleinairists app to organise days out among yourselves, looking forward to seeing where & what you get up to
Hope to see a few of you next week
David”

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 or if you’d just like to included on the Pleinairists Whatsapp group – drop us an email.

Tuesday Evening Life Drawing 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom

Elettra – Trinity Laban trained dancer

Elettra is an Italian dancer and Pilates instructor. She will stretch and twist for us, directed by Freya. Looks like she will appreciate the large open spaces of our studio after the confinement of her flat!

You can join them on Zoom from 6.45pm to get to know them and any other drawers before work commences at 7.00pm.

The cost is £8 but if you can convince us you’re a student we’ll give you a code to get the session for £5: drop us an email

Click here to book

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

Anna

The second week with Anna. The top painting is by Sarah Meredith and she’s concentrated on Anna’s face, rather brilliantly, the second one shows the business with her hands which is available on the wide camera. This is a two camera setup with a portrait camera and a wide camera to get the figure in should you need it.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.

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

Bela by Agata Michalczak

Bela

The second week with Bela, she is in a seated pose with one hand draped over her knee. The top painting by Agata Michalczak shows her face which is rewarding to paint.

A single pose life session delivered over Zoom. ( You can come into the studio but it’s full for this pose.)

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £12 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.