Drawing and music: picturing movement
Two-day practical workshop
10 December 2016 10.30am - 5.30pm11 December 2016 10.30am - 5.30pm
Life Room, Royal Academy Schools
£420. Includes all materials, lunch and a drinks reception.
Terms and conditions
This weekend course is an exciting opportunity to study the human figure, whilst being able to observe and analyse the shapes and relationships between musicians and their instruments.
Drawing and painting musicians in rehearsal is a subject that has continued to fascinate and inspire artists. Whilst the constantly moving figure is incredibly challenging to draw, particular movements, angles and the negative shapes created are often repeated.
Degas' many drawings and paintings of ballet dancers are well known, but alongside these works there are also many views of theatre orchestral pits and rehearsal scenes. Royal Academicians Bernard Dunstan and Patrick Symons have produced many scenes of musicians in rehearsal. Bernard Dunstan RA captures the structure and atmosphere of interiors and the world of musical performance, while Patrick Symons RA spent years studying musicians, and his painting titled Mary Iliff’s Viola played by Electric Light and Drawn by Gas Light was painted over a period of fifteen years. Drawings by Tom Phillips RA that capture his son playing the violin as a boy, have a beautiful fluency and movement, yet they also have a tremendous sense of structure to them.
Many artists themselves are instrumentalists and have consequently been the subjects of paintings. Picasso painted Matisse playing the violin and Euan Uglow painted Portrait of Patrick Symons RA of the artist playing his ‘cello. And in his lifetime, Ingres was as well known for his mastery of the violin as he was for his acclaimed portraits.
This weekend course is an exciting opportunity to study the human figure, whilst being able to observe and analyse the shapes and relationships created between musicians and their instruments. Working from different instrumentalists, and using a wide range of art materials, this course will introduce and explore drawing techniques used to represent movement, under the guidance of practising artist and violinist Adele Wagstaff.
About the course
This course will reference and make use of expertly selected items, including the Royal Academy's own Archives and Collection - a unique and exceptional scholarly reference and teaching tool which has informed artists and their practice since the Royal Academy's foundation in 1768. As well as learning from carefully chosen archival material, participants will develop skills in observation, representation and rendition. Participants will work from different musicians rehearsing, in a number of poses and with a variety of instruments, during the morning and afternoon sessions, working under different light conditions, with a range of materials, in black and white as well as in colour.
This course is for you if:
• You would like a new perspective in your approach to life drawing and the human form.
• You are interested in the representation of music and movement through drawing.
• You would like the opportunity to develop your skills and ideas in a small group setting and in the historical setting of the Royal Academy’s Life Drawing room, with one-on-one teaching and expert led guidance.
• You have no prior experience of life drawing but have an interest in the theory, practice and history of art and drawing from life.
Minimum age 18
The number of participants is strictly limited to enable detailed feedback from the course tutor.
£420
Saturday 10 – Sunday 11 December 2016
Day 1: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Day 2: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Includes:
• An introduction to the Royal Academy's Archive and Library Collection, with specific reference to relevant materials
• The opportunity to draw professional musicians
• All practical art materials
• Course learning materials and hand-outs developed by Adele Wagstaff
• Lunch and refreshments served on both days
• A drinks reception at the end of the second day
• A certificate of participation upon course completion
About the Tutor
Adele Wagstaff
Painter Adele Wagstaff trained at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Slade School of Fine Art where her teachers included Andrew Maclaren, Myles Murphy, Patrick Symons, Norman Norris and Euan Uglow. Following her graduation from the Slade, where, in the Life Room Adele focussed her practice on working from the nude in sustained poses, Adele continues to focus on the human figure, portrait and still life.
About the space
The Life Room
Set in the Academy’s historic Life Room, nestled deep in the heart of the RA Schools, this unique and significant space was designed in the 1860s when the galleries and schools were first constructed, purpose built to accommodate the study of the human form in art.
The semi-circular seating arrangement is based on an ancient design and can trace its British history back to the 1730s and Hogarth’s Academy in St Martin’s Lane. The directional light is also of ancient design and is used (then as now) to provide directional light to aid the delineation of the figure’s musculature – significantly enhance the use and study of colour and light in art.
Our courses and classes programme
Our programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore a range of subjects, led by expert tutors and practising artists.