A stray at life drawing class

A lady walked into our life drawing class last night looking for Heidi McCullough's painting class held on Thursday evenings in one of the Art rooms at Waihi College.
She had driven down from Whangamata and I had to tell her that this was the life drawing class I teach in the Drama room at Waihi College on Wednesday evenings.
The Art room you want is just next door there, I told her, and it's tomorrow. . . but while you are here why not stay? You've driven all this way, have a go at life drawing.
So she did, and she tried willow charcoal on large paper and then I gave her some chalk pastel to play with and above is her first trial of this medium.
It's all good fun and I hope we see Karen at life drawing again sometime.
Below one of my efforts from that class, pastel and pencil on canvas.

Life Drawing Class 26 May 2010

Watercolour pencil and soluble crayons on canvas are the current favourite mediums

Two Models at Life Drawing

We have been lucky at life drawing lately with new people wanting to model for us.

I took to last weeks class small canvases and drew on them, above in sepia pencil and below in chalk pastel.

There is a local exhibition coming up in two Saturdays from now, at Queens birthday weekend, and all the exhibitors will be working on their paintings all day at the exhibition venue and these two canvases I shall take along to paint there. There will be musicians there too playing live in the hall and it should be a nice time.

Charcoal sketch on canvas

I like this one done at life drawing class last week. Willow charcoal on canvas this will become a painting

Painted Life Drawings 24 3 10

The life drawing class is now a private venture because community education budget cuts by a Government that believes in debt and poverty and other unimaginitive ideas has completely destroyed a 50 year tradition of Adult Community Education in High Schools all over the country.
With the assistance of the headmaster of our local College we are able to continue our class in the Drama room rent free.
Yay!
I have no real beginners to teach drawing to at present so I am endevouring to further inspire the regulars at the class with encouragement to try fast and free painting of the model and to get away from realism.
If Mr. Devery the Drama teacher whose room we use on Wednesday nights ever finds out I am encouraging the use of paint in his domain I will be growled at so I am taking extra special care to ensure the carpet remains pristine and paint free and no one will ever know. 'Cept you, of course, but I trust you to keep our little secret.
I am also finding more models, not necessarily nude but people with interesting faces or figures or dress sense to keep alive a sense of novelty and challenge.
The paintings above are my first attempts at teaching by example fast and free painting from life.

Double dipping

To tonight's life drawing class I took two paintings I had been working on all day to ready for delivery to the Waikino Spring Art Exhibition tomorrow morning.
They are both unfinished and I had to ignore my class and do some work on them when I should have been mentoring....
The annual Waikino Labour Weekend exhibition is my favourite exhibition and I never miss it, it is the highlight of my year and heralds the start of Summer and the tourist season and stirs me to produce at least 3 new paintings for exhibition there every year.

Works in progress

Both these paintings in progress started as chalk pastel drawings on prepared canvases

Two paintings worked up from life drawings

These began as chalk pastel on prepared canvas. Acrylic medium was brushed into the pastel and a little paint also, I tried to keep the freshness of the original pastel drawing while making finished durable paintings.

New paintings begun at the Life Drawing class

To the life drawing class last night I brought two prepared canvases and drew on them in chalk pastel. Our model was draped in a white crochet quilt. These I will make paintings of.