There were two models present.......the long pose model was the only one who showed up first, so I drew him for a bit.   After the short pose model showed up (he got lost in the building for about ten minutes) I switched to him for the rest of the class.

The next two are the short pose model.....and yes, that's a farmer's tan.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that....if you're a boy who doesn't lay out at the pool, you pretty much end up with one by default.)

The other sketches will go up tomorrow.......

Here's an early watercolor I made of my favorite sea shell, the one that Walter gave me.  I set it in my father's garden with the petunias and painted it from life --  many, many years ago.  The two curved shapes in the foreground are border stones.  Notice the marigold impersonating a dandelion.  (I know it's not a dandelion.  My father wouldn't have permitted it!)

[Top of the post:  Watercolor of a Sea Shell, by Aletha Kuschan]

Second, I *think* I've updated all the info in the FAQ, sidebar (including broken links), and posts.......if you see something that doesn't make sense, email us.  It's amazing how many places you have to update times, dates, etc.

Mondays are their "one long pose" nights......I did the first three sketches from the same position, trying to do a different take and a different style for each one.  They all look like the model, but none of them look similar to eachother.  I sort of saw them as, well, if you stuck a different personality three times into the same body, what each personality's self-image might look like. 

Keep in mind I was drinking beer.

(Yeah, went a little crazy on the stomach with that one.)

For this last one I got up and moved over a few feet....once I sat down, I realized I hadn't moved anywhere far enough, but was too lazy to get up.  (Going any further would have meant disturbing other folks anyway.)

I have MICA's life-drawing class tonight, so I'll probably have some more work to throw up on Thursday.

Today is pretty cold, so I wagged life drawing, but I have been painting at home, testing some new products and they're going to be such fun!  It doesn't take much for me to wag life drawing. It's silent, and it's a struggle. It's sooo tempting to stay home and do other art work that appeals to me more. I've also made some collograph plates, that I hope to print on Sunday. I'm taking a few classes with Seraphina Martin, who taught me collographs and viscosity printing. Hopefully I'll have something worth putting on the blog next week. I've tried some amazing new textural things that I'm testing, so who knows how they'll print.

Yes, it's time I did my glossary. Maybe you don't know what a collograph is, much less viscosity printing. You can see some of my viscosity-printed collographs from a few years ago here.  I found this short step-by-step on the web, should you want to have a try at collographs. We make our plates from mat board, and we print them on an etching press. Here's all about viscosity printing from Wikipedia. This article says 'it's a slow process'. I've found that it's not so slow once you get going - it's just that it takes a long time to mix all your inks and set up. Takes a lot of space too. 

Isn't it visible on her face?  The inner decision that seems outward-looking, but is really her contemplation of the past in a long journey backwards through time... 

I dimly recall reading a quote from Degas where he spoke of the beautiful smudginess of Velasquez .... Whatever it was, it was so long ago, quite apart from Velasquez and the qualities that Degas associated with his works, I had long wanted to create a soft chiaroscuro in my drawing, in emulation of Degas's drawing techniques, that would suggest not just the atmosphere of air surrounding us all -- but the mysterious atmosphere of thoughts.

A friend of mine agreed to pose for me one afternoon at her house.  I drew her in her familiar surroundings.  Drawing is wonderful that way.  You need so few supplies.  You don't have to pack for a safari.  A notebook, some pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, and you're ready. 

We sat in a little nook off her kitchen where a broad window offered a view upon fields of corn.  Her hair was blonde, the color of straw.  And the light passed through it, and it was shot with gold.  She was going through an acrimonious divorce.  And she had been turning to her faith for answers.  Some part of her meditation found its way into my drawing.  And I was not even aware.

[Top of the post:  A Young Woman Staring into Space, pencil, by Aletha Kuschan]

Drawing from life has no match.  Nothing comes close to it.  Drawing from a good photograph, which I've done many times and love doing, can provide a rich supply of visual information from which one makes a picture.  But drawing from life is to photography what looking at pictures is to being somewhere yourself.  I can look at a book on France all day, but it will not compare with travel. 

Drawing from a photograph is an art exercise.  You can try out different techniques.  It can be quite inventive.  Most the drawing I do of figures I do from photography these days since it's difficult finding someone to pose.  But a drawing from life is a completely different experience.  Sometimes just getting the "likeness" -- or even getting the "image" -- can be exceedingly difficult. 

A model moves.  Even a model who knows how to pose well moves subtly.  But more challenging than the physical movement is emotional movement.  Another human being who is sitting there doing nothing is thinking about things.  And the thoughts cross a person's face like clouds cross a sky.  Trying to capture these fleeting thoughts -- some of which you are not even aware you're observing until much, much later -- is as challenging as painting a sunrise or a storm.

I made this drawing a long time ago.  The model was going through a family crisis, and though I was unaware as I drew, bits of her crisis were captured in the image.  I was striving for something related to my artistic goals -- certain kinds of lines and tones.  What I found was a picture of a human being, with the privacy of her thoughts rendered more starkly than I ever could have realized I was doing.

I drew her in summer.  And it is summer still.

[Top of the post:  Pencil drawing of a Woman leaning back with eyes closed by Aletha Kuschan]

To the surprise of nobody in the Australian art world, Bill Henson's work was all returned to the gallery and no charges were laid. See The Art Life, "Henson case Collapses." Well, I say not a surprise, but we've become used to draconian reactions from the former government.  Our new Prime Minister got off to a great start, but I must say I do find him on the prissy side. This was confirmed by his reaction of 'revolting' about Bill Henson's work (sight unseen, one assumes.) And the Minister for the Arts (a former rock legend) didn't do much to support the arts.

NAVA  (National Association of Visual Artists), an organisation of which I am a member, as usual is supporting it's members very well. They got together some very eminent Australians for a public forum with "Watch on Censorship," to discuss the issues raised by the Henson case, as they correctly believe that artists should not become complacent.

I must say that I'm glad its over. I hope it won't happen again. It's too much like burning books. But that still doesn't mean I'll go to Henson's shows.  

Well, the June 8th session was a success. :) Special thanks to everyone that came out and to the absolutely gorgeous Jezabella Able for modeling with one twisted ankle and one burnt ankle (she had a bad week) and to Dionysus for letting us tear up their dining room and then put it back together again. Special thanks also to Jeff our photographer, to Bill for bouncing on his birthday, to Eliza for doing Jezabella's makeup, and to Scott for taking Eliza home when she drank 8 bloody mary's and fell over. :)

Thanks again to Dionysus and Lynn and Andrew for making us cold drinks and a really good breakfast.

Our next session is July 14th, Monday, from 7 to 10. Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us (98 degrees? Really? Is that necessary?) and we won't drink so much this time.

No promises on that last one though. :)

We learned a couple lessons too....we're not going to do the table charge thing...it makes sense for a lot of Dr. Sketchy's because of the layouts of their venues (ie, they don't have a lot of tables). We figured out pretty quickly on Sunday that it didn't work for us though and dropped it. So if you want a table (versus a chair) next session, it won't cost you an extra five bucks.

We're also going to bring a bunch of fans if Mother Nature decides to take out half of Baltimore's air conditioners again. :)

If you have any questions about the session, the next one (July 14th), or just want general life advice on whether you should finally forgive Aunt Clarisse for what she said on Memorial Day about your son's birthday shoes after she had 13 mojitos at the barbecue, just email us. We got answers.

I had a lot of fun doing the illustration for the postcard in my usual style. However, I had a really hard time deciding what pieces to put into the show. No art director to please?!? Yikes! I wanted to include only pieces that I had done from drawings I did with the group (although that wasn't a requirement). This is one that I finally chose....

And here is one that I didn't choose but wish I had. I wasn't sure if it was finished....I'm still not sure if it is finished...hmmm.

The show is at Adornment Gallery (previously Gallery M.I.M.) in the Meadow Mill. It runs through July 12th. There is so much to see from this diverse group. Stop by if you are in the Baltimore area!

Samara loves life-drawing and feels better able to understand it now she herself is a life model

- she features on the front page of American artist Cynthia Westwood’s catalogue of paintings of women in bathrooms.

For her Fine Art Foundation course at Byam Shaw at Central St Martins Samara’s final project was a fairly abstract 7 x 4 metres oil on canvas entitled ‘Anatomy’. Whereas her colours and brush-strokes were then more spontaneous and not lifelike, she now sees things differently: ‘I am clearer now about what I want to see’.

Now nearing the end of her first year of a BA in Fine Art Painting at City and Guilds of London Art School she is very enthusiastic about her experience: ‘We’re like a family there. I never felt like that anywhere else. It’s an intimate place and everybody helps each other out. We have life models and the tutors encourage us a lot. They explain things and tell you how you can improve. It’s constructive – makes you want to go on.’

For her first year show she has experimented with oil painting on mirrors. ‘I really wanted to see how it would feel – the materiality of it. The painting in oil against the smooth surfaces. I love new challenges. The body is always a challenge – so many things to look at. For me it’s a very personal experience. I’m never satisfied. Which I think is a good thing, because you always want to get better and better.’

What about the subject matter?

‘I wanted to portray people trapped in things in their own world.

It’s a mirror. It’s a reflection of your world. All the works have a border, so you’re in your own world, but you’re trapped and can’t get out.’

Samara is most interested in creating a sense of character.

‘Mark-making is very important. There’s this energy that bounces off you when you’re painting, and it creates its own energy. Like a nervous energy that creates this form. It’s something like a spiritual experience, as if there’s a life-force in front of you, and you’re trying to portray it in your own way.
A very beautiful, sensual thing to do.’

[Image: 'In a Safe Place' 20" x 16" oil on canvas 2008 Find more of Samara's work here>]

I attended the first class of MICA's life drawing session this season on Tuesday and here's the four "eh, eh, good, eh" drawings from that.  I purposefully drew the same model in the same pose all four times, playing around with the proportions and face with each one.  By the fourth my mind was numb with boredom....probably won't do that next time.

You can find lots of books on drawing "made easy." I always thought if I ever write a book about drawing it will be the opposite: "Drawing made really hard ... drawing as hard as it possibly can be ... really, quite difficult and hard to do."

Why do people want drawing to be easy?  Readers, do you know?  I think that the difficulties of drawing are precisely what make it grand.  If it were easy, what would one gain?  Granted, I do not sweat over every picture I make.  But I love finding something, an object, a composition, a motif,  that is complicated enough to stop me in my tracks.  No pat answers, no ready-made conventions, but a spectacle that I must pause and decipher -- perhaps one that I have to fight for.

When I was younger, this sea shell seemed so difficult to understand.  These protuberances (somebody out there even knows what they're called, doubtless they have a name) are as numerous and irregular as a range of mountains.  Set this shell in the light and it produced the most elegant shadows and half-tones. 

I used to find it so hard to draw that I fairly cried at the struggle.  Now it's an old friend. 

The intricacy of the natural world provides a refuge for your thoughts.  You can endlessly  wander through its landscape (I consider this object a most exquisite landscape).  Your mind travels down complex paths.  It has all the wonder of a wilderness in comparison with which "easy" subjects are like sidewalks.

Of course, one person's trial is another person's cakewalk.  Find your own challenge and enjoy it.  It's just a drawing.  It's just your perceptions on paper.  And you can find thoughts that delight your imagination.  You've just got to be willing to let it be difficult sometimes.

It builds character.

[Top of the post:  Drawing of a Sea Shell by Aletha Kuschan, graphite]

An exhibition of work by the Barracks life drawing group, at the Borough Museum and Art Gallery, Newcastle-under-Lyme. This fine show includes three of my life studies, two in ink and one graphite, looking very formal now framed.

The show is based on working with a model who has never posed nude before, as well as all the art it includesa poem she wrote about her feelings and how they changed and developed over a couple of months. As members of the group are arranged around the model to draw, so the work is arranged around the walls so that the viewer finds themselves in the place of the model, being gazed at by photographs of each artist.

I have been doing life drawing for many years, sometimes they get better and sometimes worse. The figure is in many ways the most exacting thing to draw, it is imediately apparent when one does not get it right. Regular drawing does keep the eye and mind alert, drawing does also have a meditative quality about it.

...five a day...

I had a hard time with these pencils. They are harder than the sticks and I kept on coloring in instead of putting in mass. Or maybe it is all the sketching and ink line work I'm doing currently and very little painting. And I didn't want to smudge the pastel, glazing it, smooth it over. I wanted texture and expressive strokes. But it seems I've left her out in the sun for too long...I loved the pose, so maybe I'll redo this later and try and come up with something more painterly and eye pleasing. Any advice from the pastellists out there?

...fire, fire!...

And yes, I know this blog is slacking a little bit...after Sunday (and maybe a little before) stuff should start showing up again.

Recent events.

Last week was quite a week in the Australian art world, with 'keystone' cops raiding  art galleries. They'll be burning books next. The police raided Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery - possibly the most prestigious commercial art gallery in Sydney.  What interested them was the work of Bill Henson who had an exhibition opening there. People have become very polarised, and there have been threats against the gallery. In a very small nutshell, Henson is an internationally famous artist who photographs adolescents, nude.

You can read more about Bill Henson here, and  more about the shenanigans on the Art Life Blog.  In this post, 'Seven Days in May' the writer talks about the side issues that the controversy has raised. Some of these issues cover subjects dear to my own heart, and may well be raised again in posts in this blog. ('The Art Life' is the art blog in Sydney - you have to read it to be in the loop).

Nudity - naughty or not?

One of the questions The Art Life raises is, "Can our society take the chance that some people might consider art works with otherwise principled motivations to be porn?

I was already wanting to talk to you about nudity in art.  Mostly, anyone who has been an art student, or taken life drawing classes, takes a bit of nudity in their stride. I clearly remember my first life drawing class, in first year at art school in 2002. My friend said ' I'm going to try to get around the back.' and 'I hope it's a woman.' Well, it was a man, and there is no back in life class.  (The green image is one of my life drawings from a recent class - not there for its merit, but merely because I can't post without a picture!) For the record, life drawing is difficult, and once you start to draw, the body becomes just shapes, & you're  concentrating on the drawing, so you don't have time to think about the nudity.

Of course, there are famous nude paintings from art history - those have all been dragged up this week - Manet's Olympia and Dejeuner sur l'Herbe.  Most people don't turn a hair at these. However, it has been a source of surprise to me, how varied my friends' reaction to nudity in art can be. I blithely assume everyone is like me - but it's not true. Some are much much more conservative. Would they think Henson's work was pornographic. I doubt it - but I've been wrong before. The 'art world' (what is that? .....the commercial gallery system?) knows about Henson - he's been going for 30 years - but the general public on the whole do not, it seems.  But the 'art world' is more insular than it thinks. It appears the police hadn't heard of Henson Does that mean they haven't got their eye on the ball? 

So, what do I think about the Henson fiasco?  I think it's bizarre that the police have become involved, and if charges were to be laid I'd think it was appalling. Nevertheless, I voted with my feet and skipped his exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2005. Too many of my contemporaries were affected by child abuse, and I can't bring myself to support anything that might lead the perpetrators to believe it is OK.

Speaking of the Art Gallery of NSW, I have an artist's book in an exhibition there, starting on 18th June. You can see some images here and here.