'Merran' charcoal on paper
This is one of the drawings I am putting in to an exhibition of life-drawings here in St. Kilda. It is of a beautiful Eurasian woman called Merran, who is herself a talented artist. (I think the best models are often artists themselves). The exhibition will be called 'Thursday Night Nudes', after the life-drawing workshop that runs every Thursday night at the Linden Gallery Arts Center in St. Kilda. This drawing workshop has been going for about sixteen years now, ever since I first came to Melbourne. It has grown and changed over the years and now, I feel, the level of artistry deserves to be seen publicly.
All six of the exhibitors are regular members of the group, some of them having been there from the beginning. The gallery asked me to write something about why still I practice this old-fashioned discipline now in the 21st century. Here is part of what I wrote: "For me life-drawing is primarily a way to reach out through the eyes and intensely experience the reality, the Separate Reality, of another human being. In this way I rediscover, again and again, the sheer wonder and mystery of being alive, here and now, no matter how grim our collective human situation appears to have become."
'Louisa' Ink & Wash on Paper
The exhibition will opening on Wedneday the 4th of November at the Jackman Gallery in St. Kilda. (www.jackmangallery.com.au for details.)
