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Tuesday evenings, can you make yourself available?

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

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

Tuesday evenings – are you doing anything? If not why not support Freya and Holly who will be kicking off a new short pose group which runs from 7.00-8.30pm on Zoom. Perfect with your aperitif or even with your digestif, if you are sensible and eat early. Have a look below


A rule being broken: Coco knows she’s not allowed on the models drapes but… so comfy. Now someone has to wash the blessed things! You’ll notice Carole being very tolerant, you’ll also notice she has her painting trousers on, the studio is being transformed.

Simon’s notes from the studio:

One of the advantages of being left alone in the studio during this Covid19 thing is having un-overlooked access to the art cupboard. No one raises a vigilant eyebrow as I appropriate some cobalt blue or cut off a generous swathe of Belgian linen as I did for a couple of this week’s studies.

I often paint on board, it’s cheap, easy to store, and depending upon what you prime it with can give you skiddy slickness or grainy tooth. The usual primers are acrylic based, the one we use in the studio is Michael Harding’s non absorbent one. Acrylic primers will give a very dry surface and even the non absorbent one is quite absorbent. Most acrylic primers presume to call themselves gesso, which they aren’t but may contain aggregates like limestone dust, to give tooth. For my taste, far too much tooth, I often put a couche of medium or oil down to loosen up the surface or paint into an open imprimatura.

Primers for canvas can be quiet different, the texture of the fabric itself gives the pigment something to cling to so the primer doesn’t need to have much tooth. In practice most inexpensive canvases use something called universal primer, which you could also call acrylic primer because that’s what it is. It’s probably brilliant with acrylic paint but it has the same stiffness with oils that you have to endure with acrylic ‘gesso’. On top of that, because it absorbs, it sucks the oil out of the paint, deadening it and giving it a matte surface.

You may like a matte surface but the chromatic pungency of oil paint relies upon the oil refracting light through the body of the paint, suck out the oil and that brilliance is diminished. You can try oiling out but, I’ve had paintings that take several oilings and still suck and die.

David Sawyers solution is to introduce the oil as he works. He paints almost exclusively on board, a surface he has made his own. He works quite wet with medium, which remedies the absorbency and gets brilliant results.

Then there is oil primed linen, the stuff they left me in the studio with this week. The primer, if you were to paint it on board, would be like glossy eggshell paint, useless to paint on; but put it on canvas and it is the surface of the Gods. Colours remain vibrant, you can move them around, rub them off, lay them on thick or thin and the surface supports you, willing you on. Because the paint goes on without a fight, the brush marks are remembered, maybe not your bag but there if you want them. If you’ve painted with Clare Haward you’ll know she scrapes back a lot, do that on board and it’s all gone, on canvas a ghost remains which can be like a summation of all the previous marks and an excellent new beginning or even final statement.

Compared to painting on board it’s like a different medium and can take some getting used to but most certainly worth persevering with and ultimately far more forgiving.

It can get quite expensive, hence my reluctance to use it lavishly but we sell a piece that will go on to a 12″ x 16″ stretcher for a fiver, which is less than a pint of beer these days and a lot more fun.

If you want to paint on hardboard you can get an eight foot by four foot sheet from B and Q for a fiver, they’ll even cut it down for you. Just make sure you use artist quality primers, for a slicker surface try archival PVA or rabbit skin glue.

We’re looking forward to being back in the studio on the 1st of September with antiseptic artists separated by PVC screens. At first there will be eight artists. You sign up on the website and choose your slot. We know that artists prefer being in the centre of the room so to make it fair we will have a first come first served system where it costs slightly less to be to the side of the room. In all cases there will be a good clear view of the model and plenty of space to work. We are still working on the website so be patient with us!

Tuesday afternoon short poses

We’ve paused this group for the moment, it may well be back in September when we can do it for real; for the moment our energy will go into Tuesday evenings short pose group.

Pleinairists with David Sawyer RBA

Given the weather we have been having it’s anyone’s guess what will happen this week. The forecast offers Wednesday as the only one without rain and thunderstorms, not that such trivialities should concern the committed plein air painter of course.

David says:”Weather not looking too good for next week at the moment
Hopefully it will improve by Friday and we can return to the Labyrinth garden in Ruskin Park
Has anyone ideas of where to paint in London on the bank holiday?
The embankment near Tate modern has good views of St Paul’s but there’s a lot of architecture to paint
There’s also interesting things to paint around St James park and the Mall”

The best bet is to join the Pleinairists Whatsapp group to get up to the moment info on where we are painting, and painting we will be. Drop us an email if you’d like to be included. You only pay if David is taking the session, Pleinairists do meet up separately – check out this painting by Sarah Dickinson from last week in Ruskin Park’s Labyrinth Garden – now sold.

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 Evening Life Drawing 7.00pm-8.30pm on Zoom


Holly will be the model for the first of these evening sessions. Holly is a strong and flexible climber and cyclist.

This group has relocated to the evening and now runs for just one and a half sweet hours. From 7.00-8.30pm Holly will be pulling poses and Freya will be drawing along and MCing. The plan is to offer short poses and maybe some dynamic poses.

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

Holly will be back for the second week of this reflective pose. She will have her ear in the right place next week too! (it became detached during the session, infuriating but she was very good about it, barely noticing.) If you work fast why not join us, you’ll have three hours to pull something off. Hopefully not an ear.

Look at Holly’s 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


Freya by Heather Sherratt


Freya by Su Zhang

The second and final week with Freya as our model. We have her in this delightful curled up pose which is very Lucian Freud as the camera is looking down on her. Heather Sherratt‘s shows the pose. If you concentrate on the closeup camera you’ll get a nice intimate portrait like the one by Su Zhang

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Would you like to draw any of these models this week?

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 Simon are back from not being where we are now, I’m not calling it a holiday, because paintings were painted and thanks to the intrusive nature of modern tech, admin was done, so it was fun but busy too. We had to change our travel arrangements, which had been to come back from France via Santander, which is of course in Spain. Spain is now so toxic that you have to sit alone in your house for two weeks if you are unwise enough to go there, even if you’ve already had the blessed illness and you spent your entire time in Spain inside your car. We drove back up and took the overnight Ferry from Caen instead.

Whilst on hols we sketched out our ideas for a vaccine but to be honest, we think we’re going to leave it to the boffins in Cambridge, they’ve had a head start and we don’t really have the right crayons. Besides, we’ve got other things to do, like try and work out how to get people back into our studio in a way that’s productive, fun, yet safe: more news on that very soon. We miss you guys!

Pleinairists with David Sawyer RBA

David says:

“Hi Pleinairists
Plans for next week
Weather looks ok for next week, I’m thinking of a return to Beddington park on Wednesday, I enjoyed painting the lake & there’s free parking and a cafe which does a good bacon sandwich
I’ve seen a few posts of the Labyrinth garden in Ruskin Park on Instagram & believe there’s a still a few good paintings to be done there, if not the gardens the pond & bandstand are nearby
So I suggest Beddington park for Wednesday & Ruskin Park for Friday but if there’s a concensus for changing the days around l can go with that
Hope to see you some of you next week
David”


David Sawyer’s Reflections of Willow Trees in Beddington Park from last week

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 will be pack in the saddle with us this Tuesday (metaphorically) giving us the short poses we need to practice our figure drawing so that we can eventually draw like angels.

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

Emily will give us the seated pose above for the second and final week. The painting is by @sherrattheather and shows her set up in Lanzarote

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

Paul has kindly agreed to be our portrait model this week and next, we’ve painted him before and he is satisfying to paint.

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

Sula is Laban trained dancer with a strong physique and striking face. She will sit for us for 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.

Posted on

Would you like to paint with us in Provence this September?

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 Provence

We will be running a painting party in Provence this September. It will be very similar in concept to the one that we had to cancel in Spring. David Sawyer and Benjamin Hope will take a week each and we’ll paint alongside them in this fabulous part of the world. The dates are:

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

We have a very special house in the Luberon valley, just below the village of Gordes, claimed to be the most beautiful ‘Village perché’ in France. The countryside around is dotted with further beautiful villages, rocky outcrops, mountains in the distance, vineyards, pine trees and rivers. There is a reason that this area attracts both artists and the super rich.

Treating yourself to an experience like this will lift your painting and renew your soul, painting outdoors here in the warmth of late summer is a complete pleasure and to do it guided by brilliant painters like David and Benjamin will be a great happiness.


Alison in blissful solitude painting above Collioure on a bright morning this week.

More foolishness from France

Alison and I decided to find a quiet spot above Collioure to set up our easels and show the Fauves how this sort of thing is done. We followed a track across the countryside towards the coast with a fine view over the fort, the morning sun glistering the water and pinging off the distant terracotta roofs across the bay.

Other than one or two interruptions from some resident ants who had something to say to Alison’s legs about where she had plonked herself we were ensconced in the solitude, at one with our work – breathing in the universe. And then… was that the distinctive chutter of the Citril Finch, a native of these parts? It’s vocalisations sounding almost human as it carried to us upon the breeze? Hang on! only too human as it turns out: looking over our shoulders we could see not so much a local songbird but a crowd of teenagers who had gathered behind us, snickering and pointing.

It seems this quiet spot was on the coastal path back to Le Racou and we had inadvertently set ourselves up as the unavoidable feature of a walk enjoyed by hundreds of tourists every day. So much for solitude and the freedom to make our mistakes in privacy. But as most pleinairists find out, criticism of our work is overwhelmingly positive from the public at large. There  were lots of ‘ooh la la’ and ‘c’est magnifique’ types of noises and as we had a bit of a crowd we did not have to suffer the usual individuals telling us that their aunties were ‘really good painters’ or asking us ‘what are you painting?’ (Why is it so hard for Joe Public to work out that if I’ve lugged painting kit half way up a cliff it’s hardly likely I’m going to be painting a still life from memory, is it? Doh!)


Just a few observers on this quiet coastal path, cheering Alison on.

Pleinairists with David Sawyer RBA

David says:

“Plans for painting next week
There’s been interest in returning to Beddington Park this week, the weather is looking good for Friday morning 🌞 so that’s Friday organised.
That leaves a choice of Beckenham place park or returning to Ruskin Park on either Wednesday or Thursday, if anyone is interested in coming to any of these locations with a day in mind get back to me
Hope to see you next week
David”

nb. It looks like they’re going to be in Ruskin Park on Wednesday


Picnickers in Dulwich Park by Richard Rees from last week’s Pleinairists foray.

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

Holly is our superfit short pose model this week. She casually rode her new bike down to Devon the day before a session a couple of weeks back, as you do. Being strong means she can give us interesting poses which she can hold. 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

Emily will start a pose this Wednesday for us. She is a pleasure to paint with plenty of curves and good colouring – she had a suntan on her arms and neck last time we worked with her. Her face is also very susceptible to portraiture and as we have two cameras you can choose where to focus.

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 week of a portrait with Amy, we have two cameras one wide and one close so you can frame the image for yourself. The work above is by Sarah Meredith

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

We have Stephanie in a seated pose for the second week, she is holding her hair as an homage to Degas’ preoccupations. The work in progress above is by Stuart Fairlamb – he says: “First week of 2. I’ve made Steph look miserable but she isn’t!”

Please book here

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

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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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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.