Life drawing is so much more than old men in the nuddy-pants. Thanks to a revamp from The Drawing Theatre it's now all about performance, light, movement and sound.
I've never actually been to a life drawing class. For one thing, my figurative drawing skills don't extend much beyond stark stick men and for another, my more arty friends' cringe-worthy tales of afternoon sessions with Derek, the OAP with the seriously small willy who liked chit chatting about the weather and chastising anyone under thirty while sitting open legged on a stool are pretty much enough to put me off for life. Or are they? Keen to reinvent the traditional staid concepts of life drawing, London Drawing, the brainchild of artists Anne Noble-Partridge and David Price have launched The Drawing Theatre, a creative fusion of theatre and drawing – enough it seems to even sway a prude like me.
The Drawing Theatre sessions take nudity and stage it in the context of performance, movement, light and sound, giving participates free reign to experiment with different drawing materials and techniques to produce collage and 3D drawings alongside the more traditional 3b pencil sketches. There's even help on hand if your skew-whiff efforts leave a lot to be desired, and people of all levels of artistic ability, from the diligent novice to the semi-professional, are invited to sharpen those pencils, pull up a chair and get down to business.
The next Drawing Theatre Event will be taking place at the wonderful Battersea Arts Centre on 5th June and Tate Modern will also be hosting a series of Monday evening life drawing workshops from 7th June – 19th July. The Tate workshops take place within the collection displays and the models are let loose to strike their poses amid the unique architectural spaces the gallery has to offer. Each class is inspired by the work of a different artist or movement, so there's a bit of art history thrown in too.
So if you fancy drawing a naked lady clinging onto a long ream of cloth from the balcony in the turbine hall, fancy your chances catching another prancing in front of a painting waving ribbons, or like the thought of people laying about sans clothes among the props on the stage at the Battersea Arts Centre, this could be just what you're looking for. It sure beats an hour's small talk with Derek.
The Drawing Theatre is at Battersea Arts Centre 5th June, 11-5pm, £40. Sessions will also take place at Tate modern every Monday from 7th June - 19 July at £20 per session.
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Visit www.londondrawing.com for more information and tickets.
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