Dear Alan,
I am currently in the throws of a PhD study on figure drawing and
have to confirm that your findings reflect a lot of attitudes I have
witnessed nationwide.
I must add though that Bristol has an excellent life drawing studio
( one of few left) and it is contingent to the drawing course.
We must be mindful of the need to intelligently contextualize
approaches to life drawing and also be empathetic to the models and
consider artist / model relationship!
For this to work, we need the presence of enthusiastic artist/
educators and good room space.
I'm sure we all know the problems that presents.
Best wishes
Chris Turner.
On 27 Nov 2009, at 11:18, Eduardo Corte Real wrote:
> Dear Alan,
>
> I raise my glass to your conclusion!
> Cheers,
>
> Eduardo Corte-Real
>
> Alan McGowan escreveu:
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>> Dear All
>>
>> I have just finished teaching a short course in anatomy for
>> artists at the Bristol School of Drawing, which went very well,
>> and is the second time I've delivered this course down there.
>>
>> What I find interesting is that there is a great enthusiasm coming
>> from students, both young and old, to learn about life drawing
>> techniques and anatomy and that they neither consider these
>> subjects to be "old fashioned" nor "academic" as has been the
>> conventional wisdom of art schools over the past twenty years.
>>
>> What is noticeable is that students rather than tutors are driving
>> forward an interest in these subjects and that they are not
>> considered to be inimicable to other developments (such as video
>> art, web art) in art practice; that is that young people are
>> responding to a desire to access certain modes of understanding,
>> observation and recording regardless of whether these modes are
>> considered "traditional" or not (or /were/ by their predecessors).
>>
>> It re-affirms my belief that life drawing, close observational
>> drawing, knowledge of line, tone and anatomy is a living, vital
>> mode of encounter and not "owned" by any one group, academic,
>> traditional or otherwise.
>>
>> Alan McGowan
>>
>> www.alanmcgowan.com <http://www.alanmcgowan.com>
>> Visiting Lecturer; Bristol School of Drawing; Edinburgh College of
>> Art
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