Laura- the face in the misty light.

Last night I went along to SCAC for my second life drawing session in 5 days. Our model was the lovely, lissom Laura who shares a birthday with me but not in the same year (alas!). I used the session as an excuse to go mad with my new set of watercolours as recommended to me by Jan Irvine. They're fab and made by Ko-i-Noor. Laura liked one of my drawings so I gave it to her. It was a quiet class probably due to the shit weather but very enjoyable nonetheless. The usual suspects repaired to Witherspoon's afterwards to put the world to rights. Here are my best efforts.

Portrait of the artist as a young nude man

I'm back in Brighton briefly and was asked by Amy Squirrel from Draw if she could interview me about my career as an artist for the Draw blog. She was hosting a life drawing session on Thursday night so I braved the wind and rain of mid-summer England and went. There were only a few attendees, probably due to the lousy weather but one of them was Jan Irving whom I've known for a while and always admired her amazing skill at capturing the figure in motion- that's tough! Our model was Ollie who I hadn't drawn before but he was very good. The theme was colour in art so he was posing with a paint brush and palette. Here are my best efforts from a very enjoyable session.

Ingrid

I was back in the vaults under the cathedral of Palma again yesterday with my friend and co-exhibitor Anna for another life drawing session. The model this time was Ingrid and here are my best attempts at capturing her.

Rachel under the Cathedral

There is a big contrast between the availability of life drawing sessions in Brighton and Palma.
In Brighton you can go to many different life drawing sessions in different venues all over the city both day and night and in Palma I can only find one. And it only happens once a week on a Wednesday afternoon but it does take place in the exotic setting of the ancient stone vaults in the shadow of Palma´s magnificent cathedral. So it was there that I persuaded my Russian friend Anna with whom I had a recent exhibition at the German Consulate to join me in drawing the beautiful Rachel. Here are my best attempts.

Sploshiness abounds!

After a self-imposed 6 month period of drawing in coffee I attended last night's life drawing session at SCAC in Brighton and went a bit doolally with the colour. Our model was the excellent Jenny and I had great fun capturing her lovely curves in pencil and splashy watercolour. Then the usual suspects repaired to a public hostillery for copious quaffage. Maaaaarvelous!

John Geary

My very good friend and personal hero John Geary has finally lost his long and valiant struggle with a rare muscular wasting disease. He died a few days ago at his Holland Park flat. His friends and work colleagues knew that this moment would come eventually but it's still a deeply saddening shock.
John would be very dismissive of any tributes to him and his work but here's mine.
Basically he was a modest genius. Many ad agencies and designers all over the world would come to John for logo designs as his work was always brilliant and elegant. Here are a few of his designs.

Most recently he was working on a box set cover for the Game of Thrones. But I knew John mainly for his amazing illustration work. I shared three studios and several exhibitions with John the last of which was in a bar in Palma, Majorca and was a celebration of the female posterior entitled Bottoms Up! I had asked him by phone if he fancied contributing to the show and a couple of weeks later he rang me to say that he'd done some drawings and would I like to pick them up. In typical modest John fashion he said that they weren't very good so I wasn't expecting the dazzlingly elegant and erotic pieces that he showed me. "Who was the model?" I asked. "Oh, I just drew them out of my head." he said.
Here are six of the best!
I have entertained my friends in Brighton for many years with stories of John's experiences both hilarious and scary (the weird thing on the underground is a favourite! Ask me if you haven't heard that one!) and I am struggling to come to terms with the fact that I can no longer talk to him nearly every day on the phone about art, films, TV shows, Jack Kirby, film noir, Hollywood stars, books and all kinds of weirdness.
Farewell John. It's been a great privilege and a deep deep pleasure to know you!
Love
Paul

Constanza

On Wednesday afternoon I went along to the only life drawing session I can find in Palma with fellow artist Alan. Our model was the excellent Constanza whom I've drawn before here. Unlike Brighton they tend to have the same model for months which is fine if she's as good to draw as Constanza but can be boring if she's not. Anyway, It's good to keep practicing so here are my best efforts from the session.

Naomi

On Tuesday night I attended the SCAC life drawing session hosted by Bill Donohoe. It was a really packed class and our model was everyone's favourite redhead Naomi. She's a fabulous girl and an amazing model and as a special treat she joined the boys for a bevvy after class. I'm off to Majorca again tomorrow where there's only one rather dull life drawing class and no models as good as Naomi so I'm glad I got to draw the Goddess twice in a month! Here are my best attempts!

Princess Frankie

Last night I attended Bill's Tuesday night life drawing session at SCAC in Brighton for the first time in ages. Our model was the fabulous Frankie with her unbelievably long hair done up in two buns as a tribute (possibly but probably not) to Princess Leia in the new Star Wars film. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable session and afterwards some of the usual suspects (me, Geo Parkin, Mark Harrison and Bill Donohoe) plus newcomer Gillian (I didn't get her surname) repaired to the local jam packed Witherspoons for some cheap quaffing and blather. Then on the stroke of midnight we sang happy birthday to Bill who had just turned 60 and is now officially an old git! Happy birthday Bill! Much jollification!