Simon's Blog

 Art Class Paintings

I blame Stephen Fry.   If it wasn’t for the fact that I have been listening once again to his excellent, if a bit Forest Gumpesque, second instalment of his autobiography I may well not have put this post together. (The first time I listened to this was back in 2010 I know this because I wrote a blog about it.) By Gumpesque I mean that Fry seems to have seamlessly moved into the centre of London society with almost no effort. Whilst Gump wasn’t really aware of what was going on around him, which Fry is, there still is that “…I went to the Whitehouse…AGAIN…”  feel to the book.

Art Class Portrait

There is also another theme running through the book is one of of being painfully slow at writing comedy with his long time friend Hugh Laurie.  This struck a cord with me when it comes to my work at the art classes I attend.  I never seem to be able to produce anything of real polish in the time allocated when it comes to painting.  The tutor is very supportive but most of the timeI come away feeling somewhat depressed with just the occasional feeling of satisfaction as what I have made – see above.

Hugh Laurie Drawing from 2011

Billie Piper

It is not that I haven’t got any talent at making art works that I feel satisfied with – the examples of recent drawings I have made of Billie Piper et al I hope prove this.  However these were made at home under conditions that I felt comfortable with and portraits to boot, which is probably my strength.   It would seem that if you give me a brush in an art class then what talent I might possess disappears.  It is very frustrating but nothing new.  I had set out a plan when I started this series of art classes to abandon painting all together and concentrate on drawing.  This was sound but I found as the classes went on I wanted to make a painting which ended in the usual disappointments.   I look around at my fellow students and some of them make almost complete paintings in the time available – I just don’t seem capable of this.

We now have two sessions left and these will be the same model holding one pose – 5 hours in total but I just don’t know what to do.  Should I try and make a painting in this time or should I abandon this and go back to plan A and make an academic drawing?  Or perhaps I should try and make a portrait painting, which does seem to waste the efforts of the model but does fall into my sphere of competence? I have no idea which way forward.