~ Pablo Picasso
1
Between the silky lining and leather of her mother’s discarded handbag, a child finds a stray sixpence and two pennies; enough to buy an ice-cream on her way home from kindergarten.
Earlier this morning the little girl had stood at a low wooden easel in a sunny playroom brushing poster paint onto thin butcher’s paper. Daubs of yellow, blue and red mixed and melded into an array of purples, greens and earthy browns – a tree – a wonderful tree with a thick trunk and abundant foliage. She had captured a fragment of her visual world. Magic!
Art will be the magic in the rest of her life. She smiles.
2
A teenager reaches into her brown leather satchel for a stick of natural charcoal, her fingers just missing the exposed Stanley knife blade lurking at the bottom. The heady smell of oil paint mixed with turpentine drifts across the fine art studio as she stands behind her over-sized easel in anticipation. Today is her first life-drawing class at art school.
‘Bettina, please keep your gown on until we’re ready,’ the elderly female lecturer suggests in a restrained voice. Bettina, the model, puts down her knitting, looks over her glasses and casually covers her plump middle-aged body, all mounds, curves and wild pubic hair. Her slow movements are reflected in the complexity of a sizeable three-piece folding mirror.
The class is silent, wide-eyed as Mrs Doreen Canta introduces figure drawing. ‘Everyone. Imagine the tip of your charcoal is touching the outline of the model. Look then put.’
The students shuffle their paper and prepare to see, really see.
‘Bettina, please remove your gown for a 20 minute reclining pose.’
The teenager concentrates.
3
A young women unrolls her coloured pastel papers, sets up her easel and laughs casually with her drawing group; local artists Philippa, Margaret, Alex, and retired art lecturer Dave. They meet weekly at each other’s home to draw the nude while their families are away. The young woman confidently captures the essence of Marika’s dark sensuous body as it turns through a series of five-minute poses. Her pastels flow smoothly on the grainy paper and define the young model’s dusky shape. The artist feels in control of her media as she turns vision into line and colour, human form into representational marks, all to the sultry sound of Sade.
4
A dark haired female lecturer adjusts the spotlights to accentuate the tonal passages on the young man’s naked body; she notices his tan is in sharp contrast to the fresh white sheet he is lying on. The lecturer enjoys teaching but would prefer to be alone, just artist and model. One day she plans to spend time in her own studio creating visual magic. One day, she dreams. She wanders between the students helping them with measurement, foreshortening and perspective. Some drawings make her despair while others show promise. She is slightly bemused by several renderings of exaggerated genitalia, particularly by female students.
Time to repeat her mantra. ‘NO details at this stage … please try to see the body as an integrated form.’
5
A woman opens her worn leather purse, stretched and burdened by loyalty, credit and business cards. Years of lecturing have devoured some of her energy, swamped her magic; but she is now free to pursue her own artistic dreams. Some dreams need redefining.
She gives $15 to the male artist who has organised the model for today’s three-hour session. Tentatively she sets up her new sketchbook on an easel in the gallery studio. She hasn’t drawn for a while but trusts you never forget. She hopes.
The point of her black compressed charcoal traces the contour of the young female’s lithe form in one continuous line from cheekbone, circling chin, down slender neck, along collar bone, around breasts to arched stomach, highlighting hip bone, suggesting pubic area, down and across slender thigh. If the line was lifted off the paper, it would be one long sinuous thread.
It feels good to draw again, to be in the moment connecting eye, hand and emotion. The woman feels she is capturing something special; is finding that little extra in her kitbag of experience. She enjoys defining the figure of the model. Maybe if she continues to draw regularly she will rediscover the serendipity, the magic, the wonderful defining moment she found as a child. She wonders.
Saturday 18 May 2013