Life drawing ‘The show’
We all have one, yet the body remains a thing of fascination. The glimpses we get in glossy advertisements disinteresting and unreal, the more interesting forms we see in pool change rooms – gone in a flash, tucked into costumes, wrapped in towels.
The challenges of the body to an artist are many: shadows, proportion, perspective, the subtleties of muscle, bone and sinew that distort the skin. Interpretations abound. Few artists have ignored the human form, many using it as the basis from which their style is built.
Louise Klerks’ Life Drawing class has drawn people to No Vacancy Gallery at night for almost four years to explore the body, using the fluidity of their own to recreate another. In the resurgence of people’s need to use their hands, this popular activity has been reinvented as an outlet for people to relax and socialise while engaging in earnest with their artistic tendencies.
Whether hobbyist, amateur, enthusiast or artiste, Life Drawing – The Exhibition celebrates participants’ work in open exhibition. Though uniform in size, the range in results proves the group’s collective nature and shared subject is only the start. Exposed to the imagination, the ephemeral studies practiced in class extend and evolve from there on.
The class
In September 2008, Louise Klerks held her first life drawing class. Eleven people attended. She challenged them with a moving nude, flashing lights and music. Far from the image of tea, easels and blushing matrons, the largely younger crowd helped themselves to beer, wine and their choice of charcoal, pastels and ink. Over four years, some of those initial elements remain – revitalising the activity as essential for inner city art students and scribblers.
The relaxed, social and casual atmosphere is still there. The lighting is neutral and the models pose at intervals with Klerks’ instruction leading the class through a range of exercises and advice. Now, on any given Tuesday and Wednesday night, up to 60 people will drop in, put their $12 in the box and find a seat. With everything needed supplied, its accessibility has made it a consistent hit in these time-poor, planning-deficient modern times.
The participants
The people who hover around Jane Bell Lane waiting for the doors to open range in age from 20-35. Many seem to know each other and call themselves regulars. Some are artists from top Melbourne art schools keeping up their craft (or searching for something their course doesn’t offer), others are cartoonists, crafty-types, or accountants in disguise looking to flex some right-brain muscle. All feverishly work over butchers paper attempting to capture the form they see in front of them.
The teacher
Louise Klerks is a qualified visual arts teacher with a Bachelor in Fine Arts. She has curated numerous exhibitions at Utopian Slumps, TCB and No Vacancy Gallery and is currently Gallery Director at Chapter House Lane where she programs monthly solo shows by emerging contemporary artists.