Art class 2

Today was the second lesson of the term. There was snow on the ground, so I was unsure how many people would make it, especially as a large proportion of the class are elderly and/or infirm. Anyway, there were 12 of us, including one who didn't make it last week, and a completely new chap whose acrylic painting course had been cancelled, so he had signed up for our class belatedly.

It is always the case that newcomers to the course bring nothing on the first day - not a scrap of paper nor a pencil. The college advises that the tutor will tell everyone what materials they will need on the first day - but that doesn't help if you are empty handed for a 2 hour drawing lesson! Anyway, the group as usual was very supportive and offered paper and pencils to the new chap. He was determined he would sit out the first lesson and just observe, but Barry (the tutor) cajoled him into giving it a go.

I had the new chap on one side, and on the other side a chap who missed last week as he had an operation on this thumb, and so his arm (left arm thankfully!) was all strapped up.

We knew that the lesson was to be tonal drawing of flowers, but our hearts sank when we saw an array of battered silk flowers including roses, hyacinths, petunias and assorted foliage. Having hated boxes and jugs for so long, we now all felt very fond of the previous uniform objects we had had to draw.

The girl who had longed to draw flowers, was also dismayed as she had to portray them in black and white, when she longs to let rip with the colours of nature.

A major issue with still life in this class, is that it is held in a porta-cabin, with windows on 2 sides, and strip lighting above. So any sense of light source and shadow is very difficult to find and maintain.

Anyway - here is my tonal drawing of roses strewn across a desk next to small wicker basket. I am actually quite pleased with it. Although I missed a trick in choosing a very linear composition, and so I had little scope to try to portray depth in my picture. I like the fact that I drew very few outlines, instead concentrating on the contrast of light and dark. I am also pleased that I did not do a botanical drawing, but instead looked at the overall form of the flowers.



"Dancin' fool" always picks out her favourite element in any of my pictures, and this can be as small as a single petal or the handle of a jug. I look forward to hearing what she has to say, and I admire her ability to look into a picture at elements, and not just glance across a whole surface.

I am also looking forward to having a good friend visit this blog (You know who you are) and hope he will catch the blogging bug!