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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.