Our three minute wonder

Check out this three minute film made by Jon Pettigrew about Drawing from Art in Francis Hoyland's class at the British Museum.

Jon is the founder of MaxusArt, which was founded in 2000 to develop a 24/7 art TV channel. Since 2000 Maxus has made over 2 hours of 3 minute art promos. Jon happened to come to oneof our free life drawing nights on a first Thursday and we decided to collaborate. Painter, printmaker, teacher, writer, poet and art critic, Francis teaches several of our Public Programme courses. He's received many private commissions. He continues to exhibit and hsi work is held in numerous private and Public collections, including the British Museum.

The text in the film is from a poem written by Francis-- which had to be paraphrased-- a real shame, so here's the full poem:

Drawing at The British Museum: Francis Hoyland

What have we lost that others had?

Is there a sequence flowing from the past

That can reach us and can it teach us now?

We recognise, I think, but cannot prove

That certain works are excellent;

If we feel awe then we are touched by them

And something from the past is something now:

A standard has been set of realised form

That seems to move through space and yet is still;

Free from that tells a special truth

That partly has been learned as we can learn from it.

There is a current, then, that led to Phidias

And after him this current has not ceased,

We bathe in it and splash about for fun,

It challenges our minds to think and hearts to feel

Because a realised form is something real.

Draw, then, and notice as you draw

A faculty that was asleep before.

Francis Hoyland ‘08