The Prince's Drawing School Blog

Drawing Year 2010-2011 Open Studios

2011-09-06T15:56:00.000+01:00

Come and visit our open studios for the Drawing Year in the Tea Building! The studios will be open on:

Saturday 17th 12-6pm
Sunday 12-6pm
Monday 4-8pm
and Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment: joanna.g.moore@gmail.com

Summer School Underway!

2011-07-12T11:44:00.000+01:00

Our summer school is now underway! It's looking great....

Student work from Part One of the Drawing Marathon

Booking is now open for the Autumn Term 2011

2011-06-23T15:58:00.000+01:00

Drawing by Phoebe Stannard

The Prince's Drawing School

AUTUMN TERM BOOKINGS NOW OPEN!

We are pleased to announce that bookings for both our Shoreditch courses and our new programme at Kensington Palace Studios, The Making Process, are now open.

To Book visit www.princesdrawingschool.org or www.kensingtonpalacestudios.org or call 0207 613 8568

2011-06-23T15:55:00.000+01:00

Free Taster Sessions for THE MAKING PROCESS -

New programme at Kensington Palace Studios

From this autumn term Kensington Palace Studios is expanding its present programme to include drawing, painting, sculpture, the applied arts and art history. Observational drawing will remain at the centre of our practice, whilst we broaden the media employed in the making process.

Saturday2^nd July: 2pm - 4:30pm Life Drawing and Drawing the Landscape.

Saturday 3^rd September: 10:30am - 1pm Monoprinting and Sculpture

Saturday 3^rd September: 2pm - 4:30pm Monoprinting and Painting

The taster sessions will take place in the Education space at Kensington Palace, public side. Kensington Palace Studios term time courses take place in our dedicated studios within the private residence of the palace.

For further information and to reserve a place please contact admin@princesdrawingschool.org or 0207 613 8568. When booking, please specify which session you would like to attend.

Drawing around the world

2011-06-23T15:50:00.000+01:00

Some of our alumni were commissioned by Van Cleef and Arpels to draw in great ballrooms around the world in Paris, New York, St. Petersburg and Venice. What a great opportunity!

Plaza Hotel (New York) by Chris Green

Chateau de Ferrieres (Paris) by Chris Green

Venice By Rydal Hanbury

Booking for our Summer School is now open!

2011-06-08T14:18:00.000+01:00

Summer School Courses

in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking at The Prince’s Drawing School

(click here to book)

Watercolour by Sara Roberts

Shoreditch and Kensington Palace Studios

One & two week courses between 11^th July and 5^th August 2011

For our Summer School 2011 we will be offering many of our usual summer choices such as Life Painting with Andy Pankhurst, Painting the Half Length Portrait with Ivy Smith, as well as some new courses painting en plein air, and a course designed for committed young artists.
Between July and August there are opportunities to take one or two week long courses in drawing, painting, or printmaking. Courses run Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm each day. The Drawing Week Double Marathon Part 1 & 2 will be available again, as well as a Foundation Masterclass for 15-19 year olds. These are a one or two-week intensive course for those interested in an extended period of concentration and drawing.

At Shoreditch we are offering a new Foundation Masterclass taught by Sharon Beavan and Gethin Evans who have taught on the Byam Shaw Foundation course. This course for 15-19 year olds will focus on drawing and painting with an emphasis on developing the student’s skills and abilities and preparing a portfolio for Foundation or Degree applications. Students can book for the two week course or part one or part two. For One Week One Pose, Drawing and Painting, students have the rare opportunity to work with the same model in the same pose for one week. This drawing-into-painting course led by Claudia Carr provides the focused atmosphere for an extended study. In weeks 2 & 3 at Shoreditch there are two different intensive Etching weeks which will explore conventional as well as less conventional methods in the print room.

At Kensington Palace Studios there is the opportunity to explore the process of painting a portrait with Susan Wilson in Painting a Head. In this intensive week of painting, students will aim to capture the personality of the model working from observation. Help will be given with mixing and use of paint and composition, but most of all the aim will be to make the painted head have life. For those who want to savour the British summer you can paint outside in Painting in the Park, led by Frances Mann. Also available is a course entitled Painting Materials Explored – 18th Century Portrait Painters students will learn about their materials, make them, and then put them into practise with a life model.

**Course Fees range from £200 - £325 for five day courses and £350 for 10 days.

***All levels are welcome on all of our holiday courses, including beginners.

We hope that you can join us this Summer!

Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

To book please visit: https://secure.princesdrawingschool.org/?mode=Holiday

2010-05-05T20:08:00.000+01:00

Pippa, Leonie and Alice represent us in Fabriano

2010-04-29T23:43:00.000+01:00

Some of our postgrad student's work is beng included in the ‘International Prize “Marche d’Acqua” Fabriano Watercolour 2010’ -- an event at the Paper and Watermark Museum in Fabriano. The works of art will be exhibited and open to the public from May 15th to July 16th including work by Pippa Smith, Leonie Lachlan and Alice Shirley work Check out their website.

2010-04-01T11:29:00.000+01:00

Drawing Year Alumni Update: Katia Lom.

Well done to Katia for her recent dance piece "Elvis I Love You," that was performed at The Place in London in January as part of the Resolution! platform, following with performances at the Siobhan Davies Studios, the Circomedia Space (Bristol) and the West London Synagogue.

An enthuisiastic review of this piece has appeared in this month’s issue of "Dance Europe" by Donald Hutera. Please click on the image to read the review in a larger format.

Drawings from Maastricht

2010-03-31T16:18:00.000+01:00

These are some of the drawings produced by our Drawing Year students on the trip to the home of our Patrons Axel and May Vervoordt in Maastricht, Belgium. Such amazing interiors to choose and draw from! The drawings are by Poppy Chancellor, Leonie Lachlan, Konrad Gabriel.

Drawing at 's-Gravenwezel

2010-03-19T18:59:00.000Z

Postgrad students just back from a week drawing in Belgium at the home of our Patrons Axel and May Vervoordt-- they are fine and applied arts experts who create spaces which juxtaposition objects from vastly different eras and cultures. A magical place to be free to draw! Check back-- next week we'll post some of the drawings. Click her to find out more about the Vervoordt way of thinking!

Drawn to the human

2009-12-21T16:55:00.000Z

One of our tutors, Glenn Sujo, has a drawing workshop, hosted by Kettle's Yard from 28 June - 2 July 2010. Titled ˜Mind-Spirit-Body-Matter: drawn to the human, Glenn will be working with a number of guest contributors and with a range of collections in the University of Cambridge, including the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
You can go directly to Kettle's Yard for more information.

Daniel's book acquired by British Museum

2009-11-24T17:30:00.000Z

Tutor Daniel Miller's book, London Rites, has been added to the British Museum's prints and drawings collection.. All the prints in the book were pulled in the Drawing School print room. The prints are based on..."... the curious and often arduous practice many of us have undertaken of drawing the city and doing this at night" says Daniel.

He adds: "The B.M. wouldn’t have a copy of this book without the patience and trust of Catherine Goodman and Martin Shortis and those who’ve been responsible for maintaining the print-making department at Charlotte Road and who enabled me to print it there. "

2009-09-21T16:26:00.000+01:00

Page from Grayson Perry's sketchbook.

It was intriguing to see bits of The Prince's Drawing School in Saturday's "Guide to drawing" which came with the Guardian... we hired the space to them for the photoshoot (proceeds go to the Young Artists Programme for deserving children)-- they were a great team to work with. The supplement included an essay by Grayson Perry who has been a speaker at the School, and who waxes eloquent about drawing...

Grayson Perry
The Guardian, Saturday 19 September 2009

Until we can insert a USB into our ear and download our thoughts, drawing remains the best way of getting visual information on to the page. I draw as a collagist, juxtaposing images and styles of mark-making from many sources. The world I draw is the interior landscape of my own personal obsessions and of cultures I have absorbed and adapted, from Latvian folk art to Japanese screens. I lasso thoughts with a pen. I draw a stave church or someone from Hello! magazine not because I want to replicate how they look, but because of the meaning they bring to the work.

For me, drawing manifests itself in two distinct ways: in the urgency of a doodle, or the obsessive labour of intricate detail. In the middle of the night I awake adrenalised by thoughts of a forthcoming project. Images spin and meld in the golden half-light of my imagination. This is the time when the shy creatures that are my ideas creep out into the clearing of my consciousness. It is at this moment that I click on the bedside light and fumble for my glasses and a pen and paper and scribble a sketch.

It may only be a few lines of automatic writing, a cipher containing the gist of the inspiration. This done I can flop back into sleep. This moment - when an idea first pops its head above the parapet - is crucial to its survival. I have noticed over the years that even though I will go on to redraw and refine the initial idea, more often than not I will plump for something that closely resembles that initial doodle. These doodles are the nearest I come to making elegant gestures.

The other sort of drawing that means a lot to me is obsessive, large, detailed. As a child, I drew to create an escape hatch into imaginary worlds where I had control. This childhood template of creativity still works for me. I embark on a journey across the page (starting in the top left-hand corner so I don't smudge my work) and see where it will take me.

I enjoy getting lost in the labour of a marathon drawing. Once I have committed myself to a theme and structure, I snuggle into the comforting drudgery of copying out every detail of elaborate costumes, machines or buildings. I surround myself with stacks of source material: books, magazines, a computer. I am keenly aware of the limits of my imagination. I steal patterns, mimic styles, weld heads from 1960s photographs on to bodies from 18th-century prints.

I can draw like this till my hand aches but I have never regarded myself as one of life's natural born draughtsmen. A successful drawing for me is usually achieved by a war of attrition rather than a coup de grace.

2009-09-21T11:46:00.000+01:00

Christopher Le Brun-- our trustee and the chairman of our academic board-- is leading a BIG DRAW event assisted by some of our postgraduates. The event will be inspired by Turner's drawings and watercolours and will hopefully inspire young people from Yr10 to Yr12. It will be Monday 12 October, 10- 4 pm (with a break for lunch!) at New Art Centre in Wiltshire. More info available here.

The New Art Centre, founded in 1958, was relocated to Roche Court in Wiltshire, a nineteenth-century house in parkland. Together with the grounds, Roche Court is now used as a sculpture park and educational centre.

2009-09-10T17:31:00.000+01:00

Alumni shows

2009-09-10T12:12:00.000+01:00

Lindsay Sekulowicz has a solo show at the Projection space at John Jones, opening night September 9th, 6pm - 8pm, the show will be open on the 4th September, running to 26th October.

The Six Princes exhibition curated by William Feaver, featuring work by Oliver Bedeman, Helen Burgess, Chris Green, Gaby Gatacre, Jenny Hendra and Kim Scouller opens Tuesday 8th September, 6.30 – 8.30pm, at The Menier Gallery, 51 Southwark Street , SE1.

Stuart Pearson Wright has curated an exhibition of drawings at Five Hundred Dollars Gallery. The Exhibition includes works by Grant Foster, Hannah Murgatroyd, James Lloyd, Neal Jones, Perienne Christian, Sam Marshall, Eve Peasnall. Opening on Thursday 10th September, 6-9pm.

Clara Medek has been shortlisted for the Gilchrist-Fisher-Award 2010, her landscape paintings will be exhibited alongside the work of five other finalists at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in January/February 2010.

It's that time of year...

2009-07-20T12:27:00.000+01:00

Postgraduates paint en plein air as is a summer tradition-- this year in the Lake District.

2009-07-16T08:48:00.000+01:00

A page from Rydal Hanbury's sketchbook-- she's one of our postgraduate alumni.

Jesus in jeans

2009-07-16T08:33:00.000+01:00

A church in East Sussex has unveiled a Marcus Cornish bronze statue dubbed "Jesus in jeans" depicting Christ as a man of the 21st century. Marcus teaches drawing at Shoreditch and at Kensington Palace studios and every now and then we run a sculpture course... taught by Marcus (we have a few other sculptors such as Susan Bacon who teach at the School as well)...

Marcus says: "The sculpture is simple and direct... his clothing is being blown vigorously to add the sense of him being alive and his strength in defying earthly cares. The clothing is loosely contemporary in order to connect Christ to his people now as much as to his past... "

2009-05-11T09:33:00.000+01:00

Drawing by Raphael

I started attending the Princes Drawing School Young Artists Programme when I was in year 6 of St. Luke’s CE Primary school. I was given a letter to attend the session at St. Augustine CE High school of which I am now in year 8.

I was also told that I was going to be taught by professional artists. After hearing this, it motivated me and I believed that I could improve my art skills as I already have a love of art but I was not having any proper art lessons to develop my skills

I continued to participate in the club right up to the present time. During each summer holiday, the club organised different classes and all at various famous art galleries.

In the Drawing venues’ we are taught how to do quick and effective drawings especially because the galleries close early. During one summer holiday the focus was on ‘animation’ which was exciting as I had never done this before.

We have also had a drawing marathon and we used the Mall galleries near Trafalgar Square.

The club moved from the sessions at St Augustine’s to Kingsgate Road which is further down Kilburn going towards Cricklewood. From Kingsgate Road, we moved to The Wallace Collection near Baker Street. At this gallery we drew from the paintings in the gallery and there was an interesting range of paintings to choose from. The gallery closed at 5p.m. so we often worked against time and tried to do as much as we could. We were given the chance to finish our work by looking at the replicas that were produced.

The main focus was the painting of ‘The Laughing Cavalier’ because the theme was based around that painting, we started off with pencil drawings and we eventually moved on to chalk drawings, coloured drawings and detailed drawings. We even made sculptures. It was fun working with other students of different ages because it shows how much talent that children as young as 10 could have.

At the end of each term, we always have an exhibition. I have been very fortunate that an architect all the way from Australia liked a piece of my work and actually purchased it. This made me very proud.

I have benefited from the Drawing Club because I have learnt different styles and methods as well as how to use them to bring together the different parts of a drawing. I have learnt how to improve on details of my work effectively. My mother loves the care that is shown by the staff. They always phone my home if I am late to check whether I would be attending and even provided a taxi for me on the first trip to the Wallace Gallery. It was so nice to come out of school and be taken by taxi. It made me feed special.

I look forward to being with and in the Drawing Club.

Raphael Sinclair

2009-05-11T09:14:00.000+01:00

2009-05-11T09:06:00.000+01:00

Next week’s lecture, Thursday 14th May at 6.45pm, will be:

CATHERINE LAMPERT: L’ENLÈVEMENT: ON RODIN’S DRAWINGS

Rodin’s eyes seize his subject. Many of his rapid sheets skirt the concept of an “enlèvement”- not so much a rape, as “a carrying away”. During the sculptor’s last decades, long sessions with the model generated some of the most astonishing line-drawings and watercolours ever made: linking forward to Matisse, and back to the Romantics – as well as to Symboliste Art in general.

ALUMNI NEWS

Grant Foster will be having his first solo show entitled “Mute and Impotent before the Boot” which opens Thursday 14th May, 6.30-8.30 at the Postbox Gallery, 7 Howick Place, SW1, see flyer attached for more details.

Dan Preece has just installed several of his paintings in two windows at Canary Wharf as part of their public art program. The work is located at the east end of the Canada Place Mall, opposite Waitrose, next to “Laline” mini clothing shop.

Laura Broughton will be in a joint exhibition entitled Street, the opening night is Thursday 21st May at St James the Less Parish Centre, Vauxhall Bridge Road.

Daniel Shadbolt will be having an open studio, 21-28th May, 10.00-20.00 daily at 72 Westbourne Park Road, W2. Please call 0790 0837 472 if you would like to visit.

OPPORTUNITIES

30 May: East London artists

Tel: 020 7480 4654Email: vitalarts@bartsandthelondon.nhs.ukWebsite: http://www.vitalarts.org/Vital Arts is a pioneering arts and health organisation, charitably funded to deliver arts programmes for the well-being of patients and staff at Barts and The London NHS Trust. They are currently delivering an arts strategy for a flagship Occupational Health Centre in four converted Georgian Houses in Whitechapel, and would like to support their local artists (East London based) by inviting them to submit works for purchase for use in counselling rooms, patient treatment rooms and consulting rooms. They are looking to purchase high quality works that are contemporary, uplifting and intriguing. Artworks must be: 2D, no larger than 1m square, unframed. Please submit jpeg files no larger than 72 dpi accompanied by a brief summary. £250 (inc. vat) will be paid for each selected artwork.

31 May: Gilchrist-Fisher Award 2010

c/o Rebecca Hossack Gallery, 2 Conway Street, London W1T 6BA — Google Maps Website: http://www.r-h-g.co.uk/The Gilchrist Fisher Award is a biennial prize open to all landscape painters, under the age of thirty before January 2010. First Prize of £3,000 is awarded, and a Second Prize of £1,000.

1 June: Threadneedle Prize

Mall Galleries, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD — Google Maps Email: threadneedleprize@mallgalleries.comWebsite: http://www.threadneedleprize.com/New prize for painting and sculpure. Two major prizes are available: The Threadneedle Prize (£25,000) and a new Emerging Artist Prize (£5,000). Each of the six runners-up for The Threadneedle Prize receive £1,000. Registration open online from 1 April until 1 June 2009.

22 June: Jerwood Drawing Prize

Website: http://www.jerwooddrawingprize.org/Call for entries to this prestigious annual drawing exhibition. Drawings are chosen for the annual exhibition from an open submission by an independent panel of three selectors who typically represent the perspectives of practitioner, curator and writer. 1st prize £6,000; 2nd prize £3,000.

One of our Young Artists writes...

2009-04-20T22:17:00.000+01:00

I joined my Drawing Club because my school put me forward for a place and it sounded fun. It’s at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford. It’s a very modern building with eccentric colours and a beautiful garden outside with a pond. I really like the sculpture of a lady holding her baby near the reception desk. I also like the shape of the building and the windows because they are unique.

My tutors are Grant and Elle: they’re very helpful. Elle is very fun and pleasant to be around. She gives me good advice and always praises me when I do things well. Grant helps me with new techniques. We’ve been doing shadow, light and tones. We’ve drawn humans and still-lifes. I have got much better in everything we’ve done. Last week I did the best picture I’ve ever done. It was of a lady called Penny with a beautiful Indian skirt on. She’s a dancer. The skirt had so many lovely colours and different patterns.

Definitely the best session was drawing the pond and garden outside. It was a beautiful day and I had a lot of fun. I also enjoy Drawing Club because you make lots of new friends and find out about other schools and other people’s abilities, also, you can get advice from them while giving advice to them. Drawing Club is challenging and interesting. At school we don’t do much drawing. At Drawing Club it’s more calm and quiet so we can concentrate properly. The other people are much more enthusiastic, too, and they’re not asking me to draw things for them all the time.

The people at Drawing Club are good at drawing so they don’t need me to draw things for them. We can talk about drawings and compare drawings. I hope I can come back to Drawing Club next year because I’m much more enthusiastic now, and I would continue to improve my skills, and it would be a step further to my ambition to be an artist or designer.

Natalie Quarry, age 11

Lewisham North Drawing Club

Our three minute wonder

2009-04-18T10:10:00.000+01:00

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

Postgrad alumni shows this spring:

2009-04-16T19:43:00.000+01:00

Leanne Elliott and Eve Peasnall are in a group show curated by Stuart Pearson Wright entitled “Anopseudononymous” at Five Hundred Dollars gallery, 12 Vyner Street, E2 9DG, 17 April-10 May, Friday- Sunday 12.00 6.00pm.

Misha Levin, Philip Firsov and Asya Lukin are part of group show “Russian Contemporary Art” at Pushkin House, 5a Bloomsbury Square, WC1A 2TA, 23 April-13 May 4.00-6.30pm. The private view is at 6pm on the 22 April. Check out this short film about the show with interviews of Misha. Philip and Asya.

Amelia Power is having an exhibition of new work entitled “More Radiant, More Ruined” at Camden People’s Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PY 27- 31May, Tuesday- Friday 2.00-5.00pm . The private view is at 6pm on 27 April.

Leigh Niland will be running portrait painting sessions at The Mission Arts Club on Tuesday nights 7-10pm from 14 April- 2 June at 91 Eastway, Hackney Wick (Buses:30,388,26,236,276 Train: Hackney Wick) Panels are available, please bring your own paint and or drawing materials. Session is £5 per person.

Jaime Valtierra presents "First Day of Spring" at The Mission Arts Club, its Annual Marathon Cabaret and Art Exhibition on Saturday 21st of March. Doors open 6pm Performance between 7 pm and 11 pm. The Mission, 91 Eastway, E9 5JA contact Jaime for details valtierra.jaime@googlemail.com

Phoebe Cope has been artist in residence at The Machin Art Foundation for the last year and is currently showing her work alongside that of the other resident artists:, Lyndsey Macleod, Deborah Pennack and John Robertson, in 4 Avenue Studios, Sydney Close, South Kensington. Contact Phoebe for opening times phoebecope@gmail.com

Lucy Coggle is in group show “Ventriloquist” at Timothy Taylor Gallery, 15 Carlos Place, W1. Show ends 28th March.

Gregory Smart is having a solo show “Eye Blood You” which opens on Thursday 26th March 6-9pm at The Empire Gallery, 30 Vyner Street, E2. The show runs until 6th April.

Sam Marshall and Perienne Christian are having a joint show: “April is the Cruellest Month” which opens at RK Burt Gallery, 57 Union Street, SE1, Thursday 2nd April- Thursday 9th April

Create, Don't Consume

2009-04-16T19:32:00.000+01:00

We were a bit concerned about having a model on our ground floor, we're very protective of our models. But there have not been any problems-- the crowds have been respectful and serious. Close to 200 took part in our most recent "First Thursday” free life drawing: Open to the public from 6-9 pm, part of the East End’s monthly late night gallery opening event, we encourage the public to draw for “2 minutes or 2 hours” —a great introduction to a mostly new audience, we’ve had loads of calls since.

A new record...

2009-04-16T19:15:00.000+01:00

Well, it's official, our Postgraduate Programme deadline was last Thursday and we've had well over 200 applications for 20-30 places. It's going to be a real labour of love for our assessment team to go through all of these submissions. The Postgraduate team will spend all next week setting up for the panel. This is always an exhilarating time of year-- to see how many people want to spend a year drawing...

I had not been to school for over thirty years...

2009-04-16T18:47:00.000+01:00

... and, more to the point, I hadn’t entered a new one for even longer. But that strange feeling, caused by walking into a new classroom at a new school, came upon me in its reliable old way. It was heightened by the fact that I had never really had a proper drawing lesson in my life, certainly not one suited to me. My abiding memory from those old school days was of crushing criticism, leaving me with a feeling that I couldn’t. I did not know it, but I was entering a very different school now.

The rough sea of easels seemed to swirl before me. From a scattering of unknown faces, a kindly soul spotted my unease and led me to board, paper and tape.

He then guided me into a position to observe and draw the model for our Life Class, which was a one day pose.

Soon we were underway and, as our model stood before me, Charlotte Verity (our teacher) gave a brief talk also, greatly to my relief, saying that we were to ask her advice when we needed it. The next ordeal started as we were told to sketch five quick poses within about 30-40 minutes. It is difficult to describe to you the sensation attributable to this challenge, which was deepened, and you may imagine to what extent, by being told we were to tape up our efforts on the studio wall for all to see. This shocking exercise was, in fact, highly educational and, as in most endeavours of life, the resulting friendly discussion with fellow students was most educational.

This weekly challenge, through which Charlotte led me via verticals, horizontals and proportions, was enlightened by a series of good books left out for our breaks, illustrating work from Ingres to Eastern European contemporaries. On hearing that I admired John, a book of his works magically appeared. My own poor efforts were raised up beyond their merits with the encouraging phrase “charmingly tentative”.

Charlotte was succeeded by Thomas Newbolt. His start to the day with ten quick poses in 40 minutes (perhaps the London drawing master’s equivalent of a waking plunge in the Serpentine) and an essential restoring six minutes for tea or coffee, were followed by a superb discourse and illuminating dialogue. I felt I was sitting at the feet of Gamaliel or in a group with Socrates, as we were alerted to the trees of Lorraine, the multiple vanishing points of Canaletto, the background gloom of Goya, the space of Rembrandt, the harmony of Breugel, the ethereal portraits of Kathe Kollwitz (nee Schmidt), Domier’s wash drawings and torso, Giotto’s great Sienese contemporary Ducio and the greatness of the unified humanity by colour and light of Bomberg exemplified in his painting of Lillian, his wife.

Tempo changed with activity as his time was neatly divided and given to each of us (15-20) in turn during every 45 minute session of our one day pose. The mind which illuminated the output of Goya so expertly then did the same to my amateur marks on a very different level. Fortunately there was no time for self pity, as I was spurred on with encouragement to, perhaps, greater heights!

These very high quality lessons from Charlotte and Thomas were interspersed each week with Francis Hoyland’s individual approach to teaching drawing, once again with a one day pose. This was through sitting where each of us had sat and demonstrating in front of us just how each of us might have directed our own efforts. His enthusiastic exclamations resounded boldly across the studio: Bonnard said “don’t lose your first impression”; I want to draw that line next, bum, boom bom....do you see a rhythm there?; Sensation is a chord; Cezanne was interested in sensation, in the arabesque in a rectangle; a man who wants to gain his life must lose it; Tintoretto: Christ washing his disciples’ feet – draw it – every day for a month. And so, as each of us were called by our individual names and in turn infused with a spiritual uplifting from the great masters, the room filled with the sheer enjoyment of drawing.

David Jones, Public Programme student

It has to start somewhere

2009-04-16T16:30:00.001+01:00

Welcome to The Prince's Drawing School blog. We plan to give you a behind the scenes glimpse of The School, our plans, why we're here, where we're going. We hope to share the insights of the staff, faculty and students.