Life Drawings

Life drawing is a recurring interest for me and my work. The drawings here are from both my time at the Royal Drawing School, where I was a student in 2010, and from Life Drawing sessions I attended in 2023. The majority are ink on paper and there are many repeats of each pose. By repeating and reworking the drawing over and over again, I am getting familiar with the pose, with the paper, and with the shape and line of the person’s body. The process is intuitive. I work quickly, and trust the pen in its mark making. 

I am interested in how people occupy space, looking at the weight of line and mass. Often my drawings fill much of the space on the paper, or the space around the body is equal to that within. This produces an interesting dynamic and reminds of Matisse, how he put marks across the page, working to the rectangle, to choreograph space. 

Mainly working with female models, in particular I am interested in capturing the range of female expressions, characteristics, emotions and moods. Considering the history of life drawing, it is great to be a woman looking at a woman and studying their form. A kind of solidarity. This is most evident in the stick drawings. These are women at war, their stick representing their agency in the world.