Yesterday afternoon I had the first class in a painting course that I'm going to be doing over the next 11 weeks. I've done quite a lot of life drawing over the years and felt that I needed something different that was going to push my skills a little bit further so I opted for a long pose life painting course instead.

Although leaving home nice and early, public transport managed to let me down and as district line trains were cancelled I had to find another route. I finally reached Putney art school half an hour late and feeling a bit like a naughty school girl. There were about 5 others in the class, all silent and deep in concentration focused on the dark haired reclining model in the centre of the room. I clumsily set up my easel and got out my selection of student brand acrylic paints, inks and brushes feeling flustered and under scrutiny already.

One problem with being late for the class was that there are no good angles left. I tried one position and then another and in the end had to stand on a chair to get an interesting pose to draw from. The others must have thought I was a bit mad! Next week there is going to be the same pose and the week after we will have a change of pose which will last for 3 weeks (all credit to that model for not getting cramp) I think next week I'm going to take a big canvas so I fit in.

Must say, i think I struggled a bit although afterwards we all looked at each others work and I got lots of encouragement - the teacher thought mine was very 'Schiele-esque' which I took as a good thing. Although think I've got a long way to go before you could honestly say that!


mine


Egon Schiele's