Strands

The pieces I have been working on this month bring together so many strands of my work and my life.

I’ve been revisiting my obsession with garlic, inspired by a gorgeous bunch brought back from France by my daughter Antonia. I had to sketch them immediately, of course, and then returned to them later, adding inks and watercolours.

I’ve been drawing garlic so long that it some ways they are a motif in my life, a self-portrait. They are excellent subject matters for when I was teaching still-life form and colour and my drawings of garlic, together with Brussel sprouts and a nude, were featured in a Dorling Kindersley art book, Drawing Workshop II. I must thank Marie Claire Isaaman, who taught at Norwich Art School and was supportive of many local artists, for being instrumental in getting my work included in this book.

I have also been continuing with life-drawing workshops in Norwich and even after all these years, find something new to see or interpret. Recent classes have male and female professional models so I was interested in comparing their poses and whether their personalities are reflected in the poses they choose. Are masculine poses more pugilistic, more sporty, more competitive? Female ones more languid? I came to the conclusion that they are not! It is an old-fashioned idea; women can be and are assertive while men can be languid.

I was also interested in capturing my fellow artists as it reminded me that in some ways life drawing is like theatre; the models are the stars, performing on a stage, while the artists are their audience.

There is so much to think about in life-drawing; it is good for the brain and also very energising, partly from the creative process but also from the sense of community and being in a room where you can sense everyone’s intense concentration.

Another recurring strand of my work, shown in these latest pieces, features glimpses through doors and windows and reflections in mirrors.