REDBRICK ARTISTS

“Unconstrued” was the title of this silent yet narrative and compelling balletic performance which we had the privilege of watching last Friday. One of our group sketched as well as watched, another felt the need to record all her reactions in written words such as, gaze, held, tangled, stretch, pull away, roll, sculptural, still, support, and many more. The rest of us, even with sketchbooks on our laps, could not tear ourselves away from the action, even for half a minute, t

Our life drawing day with Craig. the Tattooed Nude was once again a challenging session with some lovely, dynamic poses. The challenge? Do we draw the tattoos in detail, do we ignore them or do we suggest them vaguely and try to concentrate on the figure and poses. Who knows? However, a great session was had as always, with the Tattooed Nude, so thank you Craig.

We had a variety of paintings and thought provoking but common quandaries to discuss at this month’s meeting. The session kicked off with my painting called “My Mother’s Rugs”. A piece which began as a random application of left over paint with scattered oil pastel marks added. Then whilst musing on it one day it unexpectedly filled my mind with memories of childhood and watching my mother create her rugs with recycled wools from unravelled knitted garments. The recollection

How lovely to welcome old friends and new to our Autumn term of life drawing sessions. In the space available there was plenty of room for nine artists to have good uninterrupted observation of Sophie, our model. After having a few weeks away from life drawing I felt a bit out of tune but the atmosphere of everyone’s quiet concentration and mental focus gradually allowed some sense of harmony back into the work. It was exciting to hear from Jane that she has lined up some int

We were all fascinated by how the result of Catherine’s experience of the Lofoten Islands within the Arctic Circle showed itself in her artworks. Catherine explained that she felt somewhat in a dilemma of being pulled in what she saw as unrelated directions and styles of expression when what she sought was a connected body of work. However when her pieces were displayed alongside the atmospheric and powerful photos it became clear, to us as viewers, that there was an evident

Many different mediums are used by various members of the Redbrick Artists, inevitably we each have our favourites. Some of us work exclusively in oils, some of us in acrylics and yet others in several media depending on the subject. Of course there are pros and cons particular to each medium - acrylics dry quickly, oils dry very slowly, charcoal and pastels need fixing spray to keep the paper and colours clean. Today Christine shared how she is finding working with oil paint

It was good to see old friends back as well as regular participants who have not been able to attend for various reasons. Also lovely to have Steve our long standing model back with us. So it was a minor reunion of sorts and our numbers were boosted once again. We followed our mutually agreed pattern starting off with very short 3 minute poses leading gradually on to longer poses of about an hour in the afternoon. However this is not set in stone and we are open to suggestions

Speaking from a purely personal point of view these once a month meetings have become part of a root system from which my progress as an artist continues to be fed. These, as well as the life drawing sessions, act as a shared source where ideas, innovations, experience and open- mindedness cascade and continue to flow onwards from each artist to another. It is from here that a joint energy issues an becomes more than the sum of all its parts. This Monday we had a recap of the

Our small gathering of four succeeded in being a lovely conversational style exploration of our individual experiences and perceptions of the journeys we each have taken in developing our artistic styles. There were such varied yet related aspects and topics discussed that for myself the core of the debate has since become somewhat illusive, which sounds unfocused, yet the dialogue did remain relevant throughout. We talked about whether our work is process led and what that m

Another fine drawing day for the Redbrick Artists group. Sophie, our model, is always so good at giving us absorbing and interesting poses to work with. Today we had a good choice of short three minutes poses gradually increasing in length, moving towards an hour long pose at the end of the day. Many thanks to Sophie who is one of the most super still models and a pleasure to draw.

A good turn out for this month's show and tell get together with eight members turning up. To kick us off Lesley presented her lovely soft painting in muted earth pigments. very evocative of church buildings and seen as a misty ethereal image. Lesley explained how she achieved this effect by the careful use of a roller which delicately blended the ingredients whilst at the same time retaining the semblance of subject matter. However, although Lesley and we thought it could be

First of all a warm welcome to Lisa, a new member of our life drawing group. We are not a taught group but we are always happy to share our experiences of methods, materials, processes and techniques. Life drawing is always worthwhile as a regular pursuit, as it encourages hand eye coordination, makes you really look at shape, form and proportion, as well as steadily improving drawing skills. In this session we were pleased to draw Dave, one of our regular models, who has a

We had Craig, the fabulous tattooed nude, life modelling for us in the Dewsbury studio today. With Craig and only two artists attending we were a select group of three. The challenge is always to find a way of depicting the form combined with the tattoos and Craig presented us with several lively proactive poses allowing us to explore this. The result was a relaxed, informal and fun session as we mutually agreed on each subsequent moves.

Let me set the scene. It’s a soft, warm and balmy summer evening with two people sitting together at a table gazing at the reflected heavens in the sea. The rich tints streaking across the sky as the sun dips below the horizon remind us of typical Mediterranean island nights. Vivien’s intimate small painting invites us to enter into it as we further discuss and discover a small boat sailing shorewards, the twinkling lights of a town across the bay and the suggested holiday at

We had Orla to model for us today so we knew we could relax and concentrate on the drawing process. Orla is a trained dancer and performance artist and so has the muscle strength to hold a wide repertoire of moves. She started with short dynamic one to two minute poses seamlessly gliding from one position to the next. The agility and compelling stances combined with the short time factor inspired us to use rapid hand and eye coordination and because we were given no time to t

The perennial questions which crop up so frequently are “where do I go from here?” and “will I spoil it if I add/subtract at this stage?”. The painting is unresolved and either the fear of failure creeps in or we have just hit a brick wall without knowing how to get over it, round it or even under it to get to the other side. That’s when these sessions become an invaluable support structure providing lateral problem solving ideas and sharing common experiences. Thus enabling

A lucky number of seven attended this session and that feels just right for a good relaxed group discussion and individual presentation. We borrow the title “Show and Tell”, which is usually associated with children’s education, to literally describe what we do in these sessions. The name conjures up the comfortable environment, which we create, where people feel enabled to share their experiences ranging from courses/workshops they have done to new method/materials and probl

There were six of us at today’s meeting and most of us had pieces of work brought in for various reasons, such as advice, guidance and appraisal within a positive critique setting. The commentary, discussion and interaction flowed easily and naturally leading to constructive ideas for our techniques and practice. One of the noticeable aspects of the presented works was the variety of styles ranging from, townscapes, gardenscapes and abstract landscapes to life drawing and pur

Sue Ripley and Jean Bashford are in the spotlight for this month’s ‘Show and Tell’. The narrative of their joint enterprise of travelling together, embarking on an 800 mile round trip, to take part in Nick Boddimeade’s three day art course at “Emily Ball at Seawhite”, Partridge Green near Brighton was utterly compelling and instructive. First up was Sue who set up her sketches and finished pieces in beautiful water based acrylic paint evidencing the progression in her work on

Today is Halloween or the day before All Saint’s day - the eve of trick or treating when the kids dress up in scary costumes and ghosts and spirits are abroad, if you wish to believe it. Such an uncanny coincidence then that ten of us are here in the Dewsbury studio ready to create magic and mystery in this unique teaching session. Casting their spell over us are Jane and Sumi who are passing on their experiences of using out of the ordinary tools and working practices. Most