#draw brighton

[dooberlane]

Paintings 11 - 20 of Heavyjan. Portrait references from Draw Brighton on Patreon.

[rozcarmenart]

The May Queen.

Pen on Canson watercolor paper.

References from Draw Brighton patreon.

[frankieslonghair]

Model Residency at Draw Brighton

Having developed the ‘Attitudes’ drawing salon with Art Macabre and the Maritime Museum, I am keen to continue to fly with the inspiration from this newly rediscovered art form.  

I have also been interested in occasionally taking on the role of facilitating sessions- partly because it is the only time I really make to draw, and of course it is very beneficial for models to see things from the other side of the easel!  It is inspiring to work with and from other models, we bounce off one another and everything feeds back into our work and enriches the life drawing experience overall.

‘Draw’ has invited me to curate a monthly ‘Model Residency’.  Each month will star a different model (or models), who will present their own innovative and inspiring life drawing session.  The models will reflect on their personal connection with life drawing and what modelling means to them, how it flows into other aspects of their lives and is fuelled by their passions.

When I first began modelling about 8 years ago, life models rarely met. We would pass from class to class like ships in the night, only getting to know one another through the portraits drying in the studios, masking tape ghosts of poses past, and tea-break tales of particularly impressive modelling feats and unusual attributes.  

It was through the White Night event in 2009 that I first had the opportunity to work with other models.  Jake Spicer brought Emma, Zoe, Ian and myself together to pose as different ‘Cards From The Deck’ to be drawn over the course of this all-night extravaganza.

Photo by Lucy Sparrow

Since then, we have had many more events, opportunities, and collaborations. Around 30 models took part in the largest Drawing Circus: http://www.thedrawingcircus.co.uk/the-grand-drawing-circus.html.  We have held regular events over the past few years at The Old Market, with themes conceived and curated by the various members.

Artists, Models, iNK is a modelling collective which was born from our mutual desire to explore the importance and nature of ‘the muse’. http://artistsmodelsink.tumblr.com/ 

The life drawing community in Brighton has strengthened over the years and models have been well supported by one another and by the studios and tutors in their autonomy and creativity.

Emma Hamilton was the first artists’ model to break out of the canvas and transform the role from object to subject- “playing Pygmalion to [her] own star role as Galatea”.*  

Photo from 2011 White Night event ‘Corporeal’ 

What are ‘the Attitudes’? Here is a section from Gillian Russell’s description of Emma Hamilton’s ‘Attitudes’:

“Before long, the model would become the artist, and her body and costume would be the artwork.  In the process, the controlling presence of male cultural authority was subtly challenged.  [...] Wearing simple Grecian costume, and using a few props, she made a sequence of dramatic poses and the transitions between them seem effortless and magical.  This was not a performance of dance, and it was often apparently simple movements- letting down her hair, rapidly positioning a shawl or adjusting her expression- that Emma used to conjure a different persona.”**

“Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755) defined ‘attitude’ as ‘the posture or action in which a statue or painted figure is placed’.  ‘Attitude’ thus entailed the deployment of the whole body, not merely the face or head, and was the main way by which a painter or sculptor created an imitation of action or life in his or her subject.”***   Whenever we strike a ‘pose’ we are placing ourselves into an attitude, to be captured by the artist.  

Emma created her ‘Attitudes’ using her education under her husband, William Hamilton, and utilised items of antiquity from his collection as props.  She drew upon her experience behind the scenes in the theatre, and as Romney’s muse, as well as her own experiences as a woman to tell the melodramatic tales of mythological heroines.  The ‘Attitudes’ would have been performed as domestic ‘entertainments’ for guests.   

Researching the ‘Attitudes’ has given me fresh ways to look at my work as a life model and performer, and is the perfect way to combine the two.  It is fitting that I kick off the new residency by bringing the ‘Attitudes’ to Brighton!  

Please follow the link below for more information and bookings, and check the ‘Draw’ website for future dates, themes and star models!

http://www.draw-brighton.co.uk/events/3042/model-s-residency-attitudes

There is time yet to see the exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich too- it is on until the 17th April:

http://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/emma-hamilton-seduction-and-celebrity

*Gillian Russell, pg 145, Emma Hamilton, Seduction and Celebrity **Gillian Russell, pg 161, Emma Hamilton, Seduction and Celebrity. ***Gillian Russell, pg 140, Emma Hamilton, Seduction and Celebrity.

[dooberlane]

Paintings 21 - 31 of Heavyjan. Portrait references from Draw Brighton on Patreon.

[dooberlane]

Paintings 1 - 10 for heavyjan. Portrait references from Draw Brighton on Patreon.

[sandalwoodmayqueen]

[helenlp1]

Naomi

Today’s face: Naomi #drawingfaces #portraiture #drawbrighton

Today’s portrait is not from Sktchy. This is Naomi, the aerialist from Draw Brighton’s Drawing Circus, drawn on my iPad Pro. Since the first Covid lockdown in the UK last Spring I’ve been a supporter of Draw Brighton, my local life drawing school which had to shut its doors due to coronavirus but started offering activities via Patreon to provide income for its teachers and models. They offer…

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[helenlp1]

Faun

Today’s face is a Draw Brighton Faun #drawingfaces #portraiture #watercolour

The Brighton-based life drawing school “Draw Brighton” started a Patreon at the beginning of the Coronavirus lockdown to provide an income to help support the teachers and life models while the school is closed. I’m a patron and receive enormous bundles of amazing photos to draw from every month but I haven’t got around to drawing from many of them. But finally I painted this from one of their…

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