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| Valentina, ink and pastel A4 30 mins |
On Saturday I went down to London for a course with John Dobbs at Heatherley's`: The Reductive Figure . I was excited but I had a few complications to contend with. I had a drop off for something I had been preselected for that I had to fit into the day. There were replacement buses from Witham to Newbury Park and I was meant to bring all the gear to paint with. As I was packing up I made the executive decision that I would not bring oils or even acrylics but would take a smaller kit (gouache and pastels) and paper rather than canvas. With everything scaled down I felt I would be able to travel down without incident.
John shared a David Park quote from A Painter's life and wanted us to paint directly, quickly and boldly. I had arrived a little late and was sandwiched in pretty tightly. I had to keep stepping sideways to see the model which is always a disaster. My contacts and my reading glasses weren't helping me to see very well and I was some distance from the model. Before I began I was already struggling. The first drawing (above) was the most successful as a whole. The second pose was a seated pose and I have to admit to throwing it away. After that one, John suggested I work on a part of the figure, the head and the shoulders. The goal was to say something that I WANT TO SAY about Valentina. I always notice her neck and the way her mouth turns down. I blame sidestepping for my lack of ability to see her as carefully as I might have. By this point I was regretting my materials. I had meant to bring charcoal too and thought I had, but for some reason it never made it into my bag. Every time John came by he told me it was good to struggle. I guess it was obvious!
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| Valentina, ink, gouache and pastel A3 30 mins |
In the final pose, which lasted all afternoon, I found myself beginning with washes of colour. Once I'd begun I couldn't stop layering these washes of Gouache over each other as if it was egg tempera. I had no white so used a white pastel to lighten the hues. Cordelia offered me some of her white gouache which I used sparingly. As I am not a watercolour painter and haven't honed my skills with this media I was struggling to make them cooperate and to say something. The something I was saying was not related to the 'assignment' but once I begin something I find I need to keep struggling to find a resolution. I'm not sure this is always the right approach. So while this is unresolved, I am interested in Valentina's skin and the way her face disolved into her chin.
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| 2+ hours Valentina, gouache & pastel A3 |
To answer my own question, struggling certainly isn't comfortable and perhaps it's not necessary to persevere all the time. Maybe it would have been better to begin again but I 'm glad I went to the class, find John an intuitive teacher and being with other painters is always wonderful.
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