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A page from a foolish painter’s diary

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 Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Wednesday Afternoon – Drop-in Portraiture
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting

Painting in the studio

It looks like we will be having small groups, pre-booked online, back in our studio. These are likely to start in August and we still have to make a few practical changes to the studio to make this possible and safe. We do so miss the verve of a room full of artists and hope that you’ll join us again as we take these tentative steps back into being. Meantime there’s Zoom!

A page from the diary of a foolish painter.

What could be better? A medieval village at the foot of the Pyrenees, a clear blue sky and a day set aside for painting. No wind, no rain, a good spot under a loggia swathed with wisteria; if I’m honest a trifle warm but compared to painting in the UK this is as good as it gets.

But the light. There is so much of the stuff. It makes the majestic plane tree which shades the village square glow underneath with light bouncing up from the flagstones. It looks fantastic but by golly it’s a bu**er to paint.

So the first painting takes a good couple of hours in situ and looks about right. Back in the holiday rental the light is more subdued and the values don’t work, without the bright light the colours look confusing, the effect is lost.

Another attempt is made, this time larger, in the studio where I can think a bit more about the composition and work on the colours. Pushing the values improves aspects of the image but the bit I liked so much about the original optical experience – the luminosity – are no longer apparent.

The next day we return to do a colour study, turn up too early and the light is not right so I do a small picture of the citadel walls dripping with bougainvillea whilst we wait for the overhead sun to blast the square with insane quantities of photons. A ‘menu de jour’ at a local eatery later and the effect is there and so the study is done, small and quick. I learn some useful lessons about indicating architecture with loose brushstrokes but I’m not sure I have the light right.

Back in the studio I look at all three. They are all very similar, the third is the most successful but for it to work in normal viewing light it’s going to need some help. There will be a fourth.

I could find something to paint that would challenge me less by navigating in known territory, paint an attractive coastline or a still life, indeed they are on my list. But it seems that one of the good bits about painting is charging off into unknown territory without a map, just a sense that there is something there. If there isn’t, we may look a little foolish but we just dust ourselves down and move on. If there is, it could be a golden city or a marble fountainhead of creative loveliness that will fuel endless and important work.

I don’t know how I’m going to fix this painting. I know some things I can try but painting in the midday sun is a daft thing to do, even Monet decided that the morning and evening were the time to paint in Provence. We’re actually west of Provence, near Collioure where the Fauves used stark saturated colours to describe the landscape. They say that the searing light here contributed to their unprecedented use of colour.

I may end up looking a little foolish but there is something about that light…if I can get to what I sense is there it will be a fine thing, even if the painting is unsaleable it will be a way-marker for me and whilst I chase the light, at least I’ve learnt a bit about painting buildings.

(If anyone has any pointers to catching Mediterranean light – do drop me a line and save me from myself!)

Simon

Pleinairists

David says:

“Plans for plein-air next week
I’m tied up at the beginning of next week and suggest we do Thursday and Friday, going to Beckenham Place Park Thursday morning, there’s some good views in the garden with the stable block clock in the background ( might be an idea to bring coins for the car parking if you haven’t managed to load the app).
Friday morning perhaps Dulwich park for a change.
The weather at the moment is looking better for the end of the week.
Hope to see you then
David”


The stable block in Beckenham Place Park

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-5.00pm on Zoom

Adrian will be giving us a series of his very drawable short poses, lots of drama: you may need some pink and orange crayons. We start each hour with very short poses which extend in length until we end with a ten minute pose.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom


Hannah is in a seated pose with one camera showing the full figure and the other showing her head and upper torso as seen in the work in progress at the top by @stuartfairlamb

Please book here

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

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

Amy is one of those models who was quick to adapt to our strange times, modeling from her home and offering Zoom sessions. She’s getting out to our studio now and we’ll have her for two weeks for a portrait.

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

Stephanie will be giving us a pose for this week and next week, it will be based around one of Degas’ women brushing their hair. She will be bringing her own hairbrush. Stephanie has lots of hair so this will give us a good compositional device.

Please book here

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

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 Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Wednesday Afternoon – Drop-in Portraiture
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting


Painting in Beddington Park last week with David Sawyer

Whilst the summer unfurls before us and ever greater liberties can be taken with our social distancing our thoughts may turn to painting and drawing with others. If I can share a meal with someone surely I can share a studio?

Some art schools are beginning to run courses, goodness knows what will happen if they don’t, we all need to earn a crust. Our position is that we’re still pausing on our physical drop-in groups and tutored groups but getting excited about the idea of getting at least a few people back in the studio in the next few weeks.

However, David Sawyer is running drop-in landscape painting groups at locations around London. When the weather is good it is a wonderful way of spending a morning. You’re out in the elements, the air soothes your skin, the whispering trees speak softly to you, the turf springs beneath your feet. Most importantly you are in awe of Summer’s greatest gift, light. It plays before you showing you colours and shapes that speak to your heart, and then you are painting: that.

If you are getting cabin fever as an artist it is strongly recommended, at the very least it will bring a new perspective to your work. Rather like short pose life-drawing, our hand is forced through time constraints and through those quick decisions we learn so much.

If you don’t have the kit just let David know and he’ll bring some along for you to have a go.

Pleinairists


Rizwan Pradwhan’s painting of the lake in Beddington Park.

David Says
Plans for this week:
Tuesday if weather is ok I’m taking up Jane G’s idea of painting in Beckenham Place Park, there’s a lake & a rather impressive Palladian house, also a cafe & toilets
Friday morning it’s back to Ruskin Park, maybe have another go at painting the pond or check out the Labyrinth garden which should be looking good in high summer
Hope to see you all 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

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Roz is up from the country to do the short poses this week, expect grace. As ever we start each hour with very short poses which extend in length until we end with a ten minute pose.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

Hannah is a Laban dance student who worked with us last year but unless you were on our intermediate drawing course you will not have seen her. She has fair skin and strawberry blond hair.

Please book here

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

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


Ed Simkin’s rather fine oil pastel of Marcus from last week. Ed works fast, this was one of several works.

The second week with Marcus as our portrait model. Marcus is sporting, what I believe is called, a short circle beard which arguably makes him look even more distinguished.

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

The second week of Holly in a seated pose, side on, with her body making an ‘S’ curve. Above is a portrait view of the pose by Stuart Fairlamb. Holly has tanned legs and arms whilst the rest of her is not, a state of affairs exploited by some artists to great effect.

Please book here

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

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 Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Wednesday Afternoon – Drop-in Portraiture
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting


Alison and Carole running a Zoom session from the studio

Love is infinite, the more you give the more is available. Time and energy not so much. We have to make decisions about where to put our energies.  If you’re like us, you’re putting some of your valuable time into drawing and painting from life because you know that when you do, your other creative activities tend to flow better. The human figure is the perfect subject for observation, we are so biologically attuned to looking at it, we vibrate with every nuance. We literally have parts of our brain devoted to the task so it seems only natural that we use it as a vehicle for our art.

We’d like to invite you back into our studio to paint and draw but in the short term this is not going to be possible for us, and when we do the group sizes will have to be much smaller. Meanwhile much of the value of life drawing and painting can be gained by joining a group using Zoom.

So can we tempt you to start Zooming as an artist?

  • First, don’t be daunted by the technology, we’ve had plenty of digital dunderheads mastering the act of Zooming, it’s all very straight forward. You sign up for the class or group, we send you an invite with a link, you click on the link and Zoom will install itself if you don’t already have it and you’re in.
  • There will be other artists there, some of whom you may know, we’ve had several joyful surprise reunions! Having other souls poring over the model, sharing the same conceptual space with you, carries the feeling of group or community that we all love.
  • The formality of a timed appointment gets you into a focused place to do your work.
  • Working from a screen can be completely immersive. Just like when we watch a movie at home and we’re not lamenting the lack of a sixty foot screen, very quickly we move beyond the hardware and we’re just drawing.
  • Unlike in a physical class where you may not get the perfect spot you get a perfectly framed view of the model with the lighting optimised for you.
  • We work with professional models who are happy to pose nude in front of the camera, we like costume but for our purposes we’ve always found the nude works best.
  • It’s good value – no transport costs and during the summer we’re keeping our discounts in place so you can experience a three hour painting session for just £10

Life drawing is where we train our eye and our hand, the unforgiving process of representing what we see strengthens us as artists regardless of whether our final work is figurative or not. Whilst none of us would have chosen to be where we are now, as artists we are well placed to embrace these new ways of working.

And if we put some of our time and energy into this we may also discover that our love for our work is renewed.


Simon getting some drawing done amongst the wires, cameras and computers

nb: for any newcomers, Alison and Simon organise the Dulwich Art Group and School

Pleinairists

A couple of pictures from the Whatsapp group:


Some good fresh colours in this work by Rizwan Pradhan


Shirley Henry painting valiantly into the wind

David says: 
Plans for painting next week
Hopefully the winds will be gone after today
I’m planning to paint in the Rookery gardens at Streatham common on Tuesday morning
Wednesday & Thursday aren’t looking that good
Everyone at last Friday’s session seemed interested in painting in Beddington Park, especially the lake, so this coming Friday we’ll be there unless the weather takes a turn for the worse
Hope to see you sometime this 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

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Boulderer Holly is the short pose model this week. She is strong and flexible, qualities she needs for her other job, teaching people to clamber over rocks. As ever we start each hour with very short poses which extend in length until we end with a ten minute pose.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

Stephanie was a surprise replacement for Rebecca last week and she has a second week with us in a reclining pose with the camera looking slightly down on her. You can see the arrangement in the picture by Heather Sherratt. She is lying on a dark green drape which sets off her cool skin tones.

Please book here

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

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

Marcus will be our portrait model for this week and next, two chances to capture his charm and good looks.

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

You may have drawn Holly earlier in the week and she will be dropping down from her boulder again on Saturday for a two week pose.

Please book here

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

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 Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Wednesday Afternoon – Drop-in Portraiture
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting

A few thank yous

It’s tough at the moment in the arts community, particularly for those of us who woke up on the 23rd March with no business and no income. Models and tutors who rely upon working in studios with artists had to do some pretty quick thinking and for some of them that meant streaming on Zoom. Ironically, some have done exceedingly well and models particularly have benefited from sharing the spoils of Zoomed events filled with locked down artists. Many of them stream from their homes, I’m sure you’ve done a few yourself so you’ll know the sort of thing I’m talking about.

For our part, we’ve reconfigured our studio so that we can stream a model with good quality lighting and video. It works rather well and despite the occasional hiccup (computers die, fuseboards blow and sonic feedback provides space echo effects from time to time!) it provides strong source material for artists to work from and a sense of community which sustains us. In the photo above you can see how it works: at the camera is Valeria, who some of you will have painted, wearing her other hat as film maker, as she frames Floria at a recent short pose session. Valeria is looking at the big studio monitor which also helps the models to understand what the artists are seeing.

Whilst this is all great fun, it is our fervent hope that come the Autumn we will be able to welcome people back into the studio, at least on a limited basis. We are doing our darnedest to stay in business and the modest income we gain from these events helps us to do that and to support those models daring enough to be on camera.

So we’d like to say thank you for sticking by us. Thank you for putting up with our production bumps as we work this all out. Thank you for supporting us and our community by attending digital drop-ins and classes. Thank you for not demanding immediate repayment of course fees and for accepting Zoom classes as a substitute for missed classes.

Goodness knows what will remain at the end of this cultural apocalypse but independent voices, well embedded in the digital world should do OK: here’s a fab rant on the disappearance of culture by Jonathan Pie.  (If you’re in a hurry skip to the sixth minute).

On the Wednesday 1st July the redoubtable George Butler is giving a free talk about his forthcoming trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, you are invited to join him for the talk or the trip. It’s clearly not for everyone (there may be a bit of bounding from rock to rock) but promises to be spectacular and intense. You can find out more here

An Introduction to Life Drawing on Zoom

This course got off to a good start last Tuesday, other than the tutor being either inaudible or invisible for the first few minutes! We’ve ironed that one out now and students understood the concepts well and did some good work.

We still have room for a couple more students so we thought we’d make you an offer. The first two weeks of the course look at schematic drawing, so much of the ground we covered last week we’ll be going over again this week albeit from a different angle. If you were to sign up for this course and start tomorrow, you won’t have missed much and we’ll give you a 10% discount making it £85.50 for nine, two hour tutored life drawing classes. How about it? You can sign up here and use the discount code PESTE3 to get the better price.

Summer Term now 9 weeks, 2nd June – 27th August 2020, 6.30 – 8.30pm

Sign up here

Pleinairists


David Sawyer Painting at Shoreham last week

David says: 
Weather looks unsettled next week, Friday looking like the best day, so planning to return to Ruskin park Friday morning.
Tuesday morning I’d like to return to Shoreham village unless the weather is really dire.
Wednesday I’m in the Croydon area early & hope to get to Beddington Park by mid morning (11am) to paint again depending on the weather.
As always check with the Pleinairists Whatsapp group first.

If you are interested in painting along with David the Cost is £35 per session, which lasts approximately three hours and you can sign up here. We use our Pleinairists Whatsapp Group to coordinate.
These are small groups where social distancing is maintained throughout.

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Living écorché Adrian (@modbodadrian) will offer us a series of strenuous poses this Tuesday aftenoon.  Each hour starts with very short poses and moves on to a ten minute pose at the end.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

Rebecca; Italian dancer and member of Mass Hysteria, an all female dance collective, will be our Muse for this Wednesday morning and next.

Please book here

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

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

Emily is back for her second sitting so we can finish our paintings of her. The work in progress is by Fronc Ng who joins us from Canada, often starting unfeasibly early in the morning.

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

The second of two weeks with Maggie in the pose above (a rather grubby WIP!) The pose is spot on for her curvy figure being a sort of more erect version of the Rokeby Venus. You can paint her feet too if it works for you.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.
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Can you learn to draw on Zoom?

Zoom Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

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

An Introduction to Life Drawing starts this week

Can you learn to draw on Zoom? You certainly can, we have been amazed at the value artists are getting out of their Zoom sessions with us. This course will get you going fast, you’ll learn to draw with confidence and fluency working from the naked human form.

We introduce several easy approaches to capturing the figure including blind contour, gestural, schematic, and also provide the tools for proportional drawing. It seems that most of us find one approach suits us better than the others and we encourage people to notice what works best for them and go with it.

We demonstrate so you can see an artist tackling a problem and learn visually and we also interact with you individually to support you as you assimilate what has been shown and discussed.

We use professional models in a purpose built, properly lit studio giving you excellent quality streamed video.

We learn to draw mostly through practice, after participating in this course you will have the understanding to be able to practise with purpose as you grow your skills.

We have run this course in the studio for many years and we have now adapted it to work through Zoom. If you are new to Zoom don’t be daunted, it’s fun and effective.

This is what student Lucy James had to say about the course: “I just wanted to email to say thank you for the Introduction to Life Drawing classes this term. It was my first time drawing since I was at school, but I really enjoyed the whole experience — despite perhaps needing a bit more practice! The atmosphere you create is very welcoming and there is no pressure, despite the fact I had no experience.”

Summer Term 10 weeks, 25th June – 27th August 2020
6.30 – 8.30pm
Cost £95

Sign up here

Pleinairists


David Sawyer – Looking down Streatham Common – Oil on board painted at last week’s session

It looks like David Sawyer will be in Shoreham village on Tuesday and Ruskin Park on Friday. As always check with the Pleinairists Whatsapp group first.

If you are interested in painting along with David the Cost is £35 per session, which lasts approximately three hours and you can sign up here. We use our Pleinairists Whatsapp Group to coordinate.
These are small groups where social distancing is maintained throughout.

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Floria is a Circus and Cabaret performer, strong and flexible. She will be providing the short poses this Tuesday, each hour starts with very short poses and moves on to a ten minute pose at the end.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

The second and final session with Ros in a seated pose as seen in the sketch above.

Please book here

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

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

Emily is flame haired with strong features and she’ll be with us for two sittings, this Wednesday afternoon and next.

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

Maggie is a freelance artist and designer who will take a pose for us for this Saturday and next.

We think she will be wearing her orange eyebrows, but nothing else.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.
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An Introduction to Life Drawing goes Zoom

Zoom Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

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

Learn to draw the figure from the beginning: An Introduction To Life Drawing

Drawing the human figure is a challenge but if persevered with, it is the surest thread to follow in the larger task of observational drawing. We have run our Introduction to Life Drawing for many years now and well over a thousand students have used it to establish their drawing practice. The central premise is that whilst we all find our own way to communicate what we see, most artists use one of a handful of methods as their starting point. We introduce these methods and allow you to find what works for you.

In two weeks time we will be running this course using Zoom. We will teach using demonstration and discussion, you will get one on one time with a tutor and a professional nude model to work from. Zoom works well for this kind of teaching. This course is ideal for complete beginners but more experienced artists also find it useful for filling in gaps.

Summer Term 10 weeks, 25th June – 27th August 2020
6.30 – 8.30pm
Cost £95

Sign up here

Why you should join the Pleinairists’  Whatsapp group.

Whilst we are all locked down we can’t get into the studio but the advice is now that we can meet in groups of up to six people so long as social distancing is observed. This means that David Sawyer’s Pleinairists can meet and paint out doors. As you may know, David paints outside several days a week as the weather allows, in order to supply his galleries with work to sell. These small groups are the perfect chance to paint alongside a seasoned pro and learn as you go. More info below.

Travel to Iraqi Kurdistan and draw with George Butler

George Butler is going to be running an exciting drawing holiday in Iraqi Kurdhistan in October which you may be interested in looking at here. Whilst Iraq itself is still a troubled area the Kurdish region in the North is safe for adventurous tourists. It has spectacular scenery, and fantastic history: “We will be discovering the legacy of the Assyrian empire, ancient fortresses, bustling bazaars, spectacular mountain scenery, 5000-year-old cities, and the notorious hospitality of the Kurdish people.” You can read more about the holiday here

George Butler’s illustrations of recent protests are featured on the Guardian website here

Pleinairists


Last week, painting on Streatham Common with David

A message from David Sawyer: “The weather looks set to improve next week, although there’s a chance of the occasional shower.
Tuesday morning from 10.00am I’ll be painting at Streatham Common/the Rookery
Wednesday l plan to take a trip to Shoreham village in Kent, it was the home of the visionary painter Samuel Palmer & I hope to find some inspiration & bucolic English landscape.Will be there around 10.00am & will bring my lunch heading back mid afternoon.
Friday morning 10.00am it’s back to dependable Ruskin park but not the garden, I’m thinking of painting further up with the view across the city”

If you are interested in painting along with David the Cost is £35 per session, which lasts approximately three hours and you can sign up here. We use our Pleinairists Whatsapp Group to coordinate.
These are small groups where social distancing is maintained throughout.

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Valeria will offer us a series of short poses which will get longer over the course of each of three hours.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

Ros will sit for two weeks, this Wednesday and next Wednesday.

Please book here

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

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

The second and final week with Paul, already some very good work emerging – the one at the top is by Illustrator Ed Simkins who took advantage of the second camera wide angle view and then a head shot by Paula Macfarlane

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

Fitness instructor Emily is in standing pose and this will be the second and last week. Above you can see the portrait view by Andrew Berridge and the wide view as depicted by Gordon Stewart.

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.
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Clear sweet video and clean sound now on our Zoom sessions

Zoom Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

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

Last week an optical cable slithered it’s way to our studio, bringing with it many megabits up and down. The megabits allow us to present our models to you with greater clarity and richer colours and enable us to have clear audio so we can hear what you say and you us. This is a massive relief, you’ll know if you’ve tried any of our previous Zoom sessions that the picture has been variable and the sound, at times, positively bizarre. That is now behind us and our system works well.

We have also introduced a second camera so we will either offer you two views or a wide angle shot with the second camera zoomed in.

There are four Zoom sessions this week, including a portrait session on Wednesday afternoon, we hope we’ll see you at one or more of them.

David Sawyer is planning on going further afield. On Tuesday morning he will be at the Rookery in Streatham which has some fine views and trees and walled gardens terraced down a hill. Plenty to paint and whilst the main car park appears to be closed we can park along the road that leads up to it. On Wednesday he will be travelling to Deal in Kent to paint on the sea front. If you’d like to join him on either of these ventures then you can sign up here. You will be invited to join his Whatsapp group to coordinate. These are small groups where we respect rules on social distancing.

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Adrian is our man for Tuesdays short poses. We’ll go through the routine of very short poses getting successively longer each hour.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

The second and final week with Stephanie in a seated pose: see this WIP below for the pose.

Please book here

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

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

We have Paul sitting for a portrait this afternoon. Paul is a Street Operative who has a look and charm all his own. The photo is by Henry Miller who snapped him going about his work. He will be with us this week and next.

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

Emily is a fitness instructor who also models. She will sit for us for a long pose this Saturday that we will return to again next Saturday 20th June.
Here is a painting of her by Bukie Kawano

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.
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Plein Air Painting for the socially distant

Zoom Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

Tuesday Afternoon Short Pose Drop-in Life Drawing
Wednesday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting

Plein Air painting with David Sawyer this Tuesday


Beddington Park – detail, by David Sawyer

Boris has said that it’s OK for six people to socially distance in a group outdoors. That sounds like a plein air painting trip to us!

Next Tuesday David is going to be in Ruskin Park’s maze garden from 10.00am – 1.00pm and then on Thursday afternoon 2.00pm-5.00pm. David feels that having three hour sessions will work better for everyone and we think he is right, it’ll focus the mind and be better value. He’s inviting five others to be six feet away from him. He will be painting and will also support you in your work, this is one of the best ways of learning, watching an expert do what they do and getting feedback on what you are doing. David has a visor to protect you (and him) whilst he is teaching.

If you’d like to join in next Tuesday 2nd June could you respond to this email, (we don’t have a web page put together for this yet). The cost is £35 for each session. You may park at our studio and wander down. (Ruskin Park is very close to the studio)

In future we will run his sessions in a more ad hoc way so that you will have the option to sign up for each individual session or for a block of three or six as works for you. You can now think of this rather like a drop-in. We also anticipate going further afield and being more responsive so that if, for instance, it’s bucketing down, we’ll take a view and maybe go out the next day.

We will use a Whatsapp group for communications, most of us already use it to chat to our families and it’s ideal for a smallish group to coordinate on the go. When you sign up you’ll get invited to the Whatsapp group and then you’ll be in the loop for subsequent sessions or any other updates.

Clare Haward is having a virtual exhibition


Landscape with village, oil on linen by Clare Haward

A range of Landscape paintings by Clare Haward NEAC will soon be exhibited at 155A. The exhibition will run online from next weekend. If you’ve ever learnt anything from Clare you may like to buy one of her paintings, having your tutor’s work on the wall is a constant reminder of their way.

“Clare Haward is a painter of Landscapes, Still Life and Portrait. Recently elected as a member of New English Art Club, she has exhibited her work widely. She also teaches her particular approach to painting, finding this has become an important part of informing some ideas into her own practice.

Price range: £225-£1500”

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Ros is posing for the short poses this Tuesday afternoon. Here is a screen grab from the last time she was here. We will follow the familiar format of starting each hour with terrifying 30 second short poses and move on to longer poses. depending upon who comes and goes we may end the session with a half hour pose. We try to be democratic.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

We have Stephanie for two weeks, I think her hair has changed since this photo, so you get the sunshine and smiles but not the curly locks!

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

Last week poor Sara, our expected model, came down with suspected CV so Alison had the challenge of finding a new model at 9.30 on a Saturday morning. Not all models are morning people (to put it mildly) so we were very happy to discover that Adrian is. He dashed over and saved the session with a seated pose that makes the most of his colouring. We will bring Sara back when she has recovered so that we can finish our paintings but we have Adrian for this week in the second of a two week pose. The WIP painting below is by Vicki Cooke on her first digital session with us, let’s hope she enjoyed the session enough to come back!

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.
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Some new words for our new ways

Zoom Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

Tuesday Afternoon Short Pose Drop-in Life Drawing
Wednesday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting


Ros by Heather Sherratt from Tuesday afternoon’s drop-in

New words for our new ways

Whilst half the country is kicking back on 80% of its income the other half, which includes lots of us creative types, are working their buns off trying to evolve new ways of making a living. Models, tutors and organisers have had a tough time but they’ve been inventive, streaming sessions from their homes, doing costumed life drawing to avoid the priggishness of social media, making photographs available for download.

Our response has been to reconfigure our studio so that you can be with us in every way that technology allows.

If I’d suggested two months ago that we should “Zoom” you might have been nonplussed. A “stream” would’ve been of the babbling brook variety and lets face it, a “covid” would just have been a badly spelt crow. But now we are inviting you to join us on Zoom where we will stream images of our models as they pose for us.

Why is this better than a video or even just a static image?

It does seem that there is a sense of connection, a being there, which catalyses our creative activities. And whilst in some ways it may be easier to work from photographic reference, having a real person posing brings an immediacy to things: the slight adjustments to the pose can be an irritation but they can also jolt us back into understanding what we see and move us along from slavish representation. The structure of having a date in the diary can be a bonus too. The images people have sent us of their work have been very good indeed so it certainly works as a modus operandi.

We value your ideas and input so if you have attended any of our Zoom sessions and feel you have anything to add, please do tell us.

We need, for example, to think about the best way of sharing images. We would suggest that posting on Instagram with the #dulwichartgroup is one good solution but not everyone wants to publish a work in progress. We are looking for a slightly more private digital venue, any thoughts?

Each session we run at the moment evolves from the last as we learn together and find better ways. The image quality is good for most people most of the time, we’ve learnt to preserve bandwidth in the studio as we wait for our fibre broadband to be installed and with it the chance to have more and better images.

Whilst we evolve you can get well discounted sessions by using the relevant discount code at checkout.

Painting in Oils 10.00am-1.00pm Fridays

We have a couple of places on this course which is a follow on from our Skills courses. Tutored by Clare Haward you will be taken through a series of still life setups and exercises which will deepen and strengthen your observational oil painting. It will also help you to set up your home studio and instill a process for working at home. This course is for those who have the basic mechanics of drawing and painting and want to move on. We are offering six weeks of this starting from this Friday with options to continue thereafter. The course is delivered through Zoom with email support. Please email us for more information – info@dulwichartgroup.co.uk

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Adrian will be stretching his sinews for us in this Tuesday’s short pose group. We begin with very short poses of 30 seconds, so make sure you’ve sharpened your pencil before we start! The poses get successively longer throughout the hour and then the cycle begins again. This can be quite hard work but nothing trains the eye better, or fills a portfolio quicker.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

The second of a two week sitting with Valeria in a seated pose. This will be three hours, one pose, streamed through Zoom. Here’s what the pose looks like as seen by artist and printmaker Lisa Takahashi:

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

This is also the second week of a two week pose, this time with Sara. Three hours one pose, seated in a chair. Here is how the pose is looking to artist Jane Lawrence

Please book here

The session fee will be reduced to £10 if you use the discount code PESTE2 at final checkout.
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We are now offering Zoom based life drawing and painting sessions.

Zoom Drop-in Groups – click on the links below

Tuesday Afternoon Short Pose Drop-in Life Drawing
Wednesday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting
Saturday Morning – Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting


Freya by Bukie Kawano, study from live video stream

It’s been a long time since I walked in the moonlight…

It’s been a long time now since the lock down started and I imagine that you, like me, are missing painting from life. Working from photos is a good discipline to master but it’s not the same as having a model in front of you.

Unfortunately it looks like our studio will not be a realistic place to work in for some time. Even when we are allowed to reconvene we expect strictures on the way we use the space.

Is there a solution? We hope so. You may know that Clare Haward has been using Zoom to run her classes online. Initially we all felt this would fall short of what we expect from an art class but we’ve all been very positively surprised, both at how much value artists get from it and also how much fun it is. It’s not the same as being in a studio, it is different, not worse, just different.

Whilst this format works well for tutor led groups, the drop-ins have been causing us to scratch our heads somewhat. We felt that having a high quality live image to work from was important for you, along with the ability to interact with others.

Drop-in Life Drawing and Painting using Zoom and a Live Stream

The system we have arrived at is to broadcast a live stream of the model, which will appear on our website, coupled with a Zoom meeting where we will be able to chat and bicker as we usually do.

The live stream (which is just a page on our website, think of it like a YouTube video) uses high quality optics at our end to bring you the nuances of colour and light that many observational artists enjoy. We will often couple this with a camera looking over the shoulder of the tutor or artist taking the session so you can see how they tackle the image, for inspiration or amusement.

You may wonder why we don’t just use Facebook or YouTube live? If only life were that simple, unfortunately they have an odd attitude towards nudity and much of what we do requires a nude model. (Profanity, subversion and murder is OK. Just not nipples or pubes.)

We now have everything in place to do this, all except the fibre broadband for the live stream. Whilst we think that the combination of good quality imagery and a Zoom meeting best recreates the feel of our studio in better times, some artists may find that they are happy enough just using Zoom. The painting above was done by Bukie Kawano at one of our test sessions using Zoom, and as they say, the results speak for themselves. The fibre does not get installed until early June, so until then, off we Zoom.

The good news

We are offering Zoom sessions at a discounted rate, see below. We hope you’ll get as much value out of it as we’ve found that others have.

Understanding Zoom

Zoom is very simple but it is new. Do you remember as a child finding it staggeringly complex to use a payphone? In real terms Zoom is as easy as using a phone but the first time can feel a little confusing so, if you are not confident using Zoom, can we suggest that you have a look at some videos online? Alison thought this one was a good introduction. There are many others if you google “How to use Zoom”

The routine will be that about half an hour before the session you will receive an email with a link to the meeting. If you’ve never used Zoom before, just click on the link and the system will walk you through the setup – it’s only a couple of clicks – and you’ll be ready to go. Once you have Zoom installed you’ll get straight into the waiting room for the meeting where Carole or Alison will then let you in.

Obviously a good wifi connection is going to help at your end and if you can set up your computer/tablet beside your easel or table, you’ll find it is an acceptable way to work. Your computer or tablet will send pictures of you to the Zoom group so you can see yourself and others on the screen and talk. It’s best to be there a bit before we start drawing, just as in a real studio it takes time to get all set up.

We’ll follow our familiar format, you can chat away before the session then at the starting time we’ll begin drawing or painting the model from the screen. We’ll pause for a 5 minute model break every 25 minutes.

Don’t forget to apply the discount code when you are checking out!

Art materials

Mr Green’s, or the Art Stationer’s in Dulwich Village (their proper name) are happy to deliver any materials you want to buy during lock down. It’s often Mary, Mr Green’s daughter, who is the paint monger these days and she is also offering a 10% discount as a further inducement to local art groups. So if you need anything, make the order and mention the Dulwich Art Group to get your discount. Their new website is here

Tuesday Drop-in Short Pose Life Drawing 2.00pm-5.00pm on Zoom

Our model is actor and performance artist Ros.

You can choose to join us for one, two or three 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 Long Pose Life Drawing 10.00am-1.00pm on Zoom

Valeria is a young dancer who we have painted before. She hails from Greece.

This will be the first of two three hour sessions with the second session being next Wednesday You’ll know that we often have a model pose for three weeks but this is a slightly different situation and we will discuss this further as we go along.

Please book here

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

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

Sara is a French dancer who will sit for us for three hours this Saturday and next. As above we will discuss how long it is appropriate to keep a pose as we move forward.

Please book here

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