Life Drawing Video

Kathy Barker - Life Drawing Class from Kathy Barker on Vimeo.

Julia LLoyd Huges

I met Julia when she was living in London and attending quite a few of my art classes learning how to draw and paint the life model or nude.  I feel because of her experience in this arena as a practicing artist Julia was very aware of the process of looking and painting a subject with all its intricacies and working methods. This knowledge translated intuitively as she was much more at ease at the sitting sessions making it very much easier for me.  I love the way Julia is looking away in this portrait. I think it shows the softer and more vulnerable side of her character and also hints at her sparkling humour.  Julia had some ideas of how she wanted the background and general colours to be muted and dark. The dark dress combined with her dark hair against the background contrasts and set off her face beautifully. The more daring neckline of the dress that we chose has a simple and strong design. It allows space for the pearl necklace, a favourite jewellery piece of Julia's. The extra touch of their lightness gives a balance to the natural tones of the skin. 

In the detail image of the portrait you can see the handling of the paint upon the surface of the canvas. It is always interesting to see how each artist handles paint whether is be brushy or smooth as it is like handwriting, very particular to every individual. I really enjoyed painting this portrait of Julia.

New Portraits

The model who sat for me in this painting is Frances Piper.  She has modelled for me before and I just love her face.  As she struck a pose on this particular ocassion she reminded me of religious paintings.  Well, I just indulged myself and thought why not...I decided to paint Florence in the background as her image evoked Italy.  Whilst the painting perhaps connotes the past it is an interesting notion to me, that the image must also be contemporary in the sense that the face I am painting is one that lives and breathes today.










Hettie came to my Hurlingham studio to sit for me a few times and during that period I got to know her quite well. She is a lovely warm and smiley person. In this portrait however, I wanted to capture other qualities that to me were just as characteristic of Hettie. Her softness and the very empathetic, sensitive, astute and caring person that she is.  We had a lovely time together. It was a real joy to do her portrait


 Detail of Hettie

One of my favourite portraits

Detail

15 and 30 minute sample sketches of mine

Life Drawing Classes at Hurlingham Studios

Scroll down and click on older post for detials of life drawing classes at hurlingham studios every Tuesday. Times are now 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1pm to 3pm. It is a great way to escape the every day humdrum, you learn a lot and you will really enjoy it!

Works in Progress