Open Drawing Group

Okay, in the beginning of most artist educational path you are required to draw the figure from life. The reasons for this is to teach the human anatomy, different techniques, and exercise are skills. From the start we are taught the gesture, contour, line quality, perspective, positive and negative space, and the list goes on and on. Though as a mature artist you must still practice, this is harder at times to do. Personally I have taken up with using a mirror to get the experience I need to keep active. I love gesture drawings and those quick sketches that can become very lovely in of themselves. They are simple, have a moment in time captured, emotion, freedom. Last night I was given the privilege to attend an open drawing group, I knew one person there merely by name, another I had met during a sale of collective works, the others were new to me, and the executive person who set this up I only had met through Facebook, so again this proves that networking is so important to an artist. We gathered, shared some wine, shared the cost of the model, and were completely free to do what we do individually as artist, charcoal, conte', pen, pastel, oils. A relaxed evening of conversation, beginning with a number of gesture poses, to a long pose at the end. I felt very lucky to have participated in this group and to be a part of a collective. Yes, we all have many friends but at times to be with our own is comforting. We all have the same struggles, trying to sell, produce what someones aunt Martha is not able to, and understanding that this is not only what we do, it is who we are. I am looking forward to the next time, but for now, its back to the studio.