Life drawing with Humphrey Ocean RA
Afternoon session
Saturday 13 October 2018 2.30 - 5.30pm
The Life Room, RA Schools, Royal Academy of Arts
£120 for one session. £200 if booked with the Chris Wilkinson RA's life-drawing session. Includes all materials, light refreshments and a drinks reception.
Terms and conditions
Take part in a practical life-drawing class in the RA’s historic Life Room with painter and Royal Academician Humphrey Ocean.
‘We will look at someone and draw them, which, to me, is about the luckiest thing to be allowed to do.’
Humphrey Ocean RA, 2018
Join Humphrey Ocean RA, internationally renowned painter and Professor of Perspective at the RA Schools, for an informal life-drawing lesson in the Royal Academy’s historic Life Room, purpose-built for drawing from life.
Humphrey will talk about how drawing from life connects to our own lives and the world around us, looking at a model and talking with participants about their responses and the work they produce. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from an experienced and internationally renowned artist.
Listen to the podcast bellow, in which architect Chris Wilkinson RA and painter Humphrey Ocean RA discuss what it is to draw, and why the process is central to their work.
This afternoon session is available to book as an individual class or with the morning session, led by Chris Wilkinson RA, which will take place on the same day from 10.30am - 1.30pm. Individual session: £120. Full day (both sessions): £200
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About the tutor
Humphrey Ocean
Humphrey Ocean RA studied at Canterbury College of Art from 1970 to 1973. During that time, he played bass with Kilburn and the Highroads and the band supported The Who on their 1973 Christmas Tour. His first major solo exhibition was at the National Portrait Gallery in 1984, followed by shows at Tate Liverpool, the Whitechapel Gallery, London and, in 2003, How’s my driving at Dulwich Picture Gallery. His series of new portraits, A handbook of modern life, was shown in 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery and in 2018 he had an exhibition of sculpture and works on paper, I’ve No Idea Either, at Sims Reed Gallery, London,
Humphrey's other projects include Big Mouth: The Amazon Speaks, his book with anthropologist Stephen Nugent about their visit to northern Brazil; Today’s Nude with Artangel for Channel 4 in 2009; Art Everywhere with the Art Fund in 2013 (which put 57 of Britain’s favourite paintings on billboards); and in the 50th Anniversary of the British Road Sign exhibition at the Design Museum in 2015. Also in 2015, he was made an Honorary Doctor by the University of Kent. In 2016 he wrote and presented The Essay for BBC Radio 3 and this year appeared on Only Artists, BBC Radio 4. Also in 2018 he featured in Drawing Together at the Courtauld Gallery, From Life at Royal Academy of Arts and hung Gallery IV for the 250th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Humphrey lives and works in London and is the Royal Academy’s Professor of Perspective.
About the space
The Life Room
The Royal Academy’s historic Life Room sits at the heart of the RA Schools. Usually closed to the public, this unique and significant space was designed in the 1860s, when the galleries and art school first moved to Burlington Gardens.
The semi-circular seating arrangement, based on an ancient design, traces its British history back to Hogarth’s Academy in St Martin’s Lane from around1730. Directional light is used to enhance the delineation of the model’s musculature and aid life drawing, which has been practised in this room by generations of Royal Academy artists and students.
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.