The New English Art Club 2015
The Drawing School Year by Mick Kirkbride, Drawing School Curator The ethos of the Drawing School is designed to encourage a flexible approach to the understanding of observational accuracy. It seeks to equip all levels of student for the difficulties and challenges in creating a coherent image, without recourse to formulaic solutions as a way of resolving the problems of representation. After all, there is no single correct way to describe an object, as drawing is by nature autographic. The year itself began with a two day life drawing workshop at Putney School of Art in early January. This popular venue has become a regular fixture in the Drawing School calendar, its archetypal surroundings enhance what is already an enriched and mutually supportive experience for our students. The dynamic is always energised, and the outcomes are a reflection of this. The sessions were taught by Peter Clossick and Arthur Neal, both of whom explore the figure as a dominant recurring structural motif within their own work. 8
The Putney workshop was followed by an intensive drawing day at Spitalfields Market in March. This distinctive location offers up a myriad of drawing opportunities, from the transience and ephemerality of the moving object, to the static linearity of architectural detail. The resulting outcomes were a worthy celebration of the resonance and challenges of the subject. Once again Peter Clossick was on hand to offer his unique
insight, together with Paul Newland, whose innate feeling for mixed media and empirical approach to his own work brought added value to the day’s teaching. Looking to our next event we are keen to extend Drawing School activities beyond the parameters of the Capital. With this in mind a landscape painting weekend in Whitstable will take place in mid May run by Sarah Spencer