Life Drawing in Penzance
Weekly independent drop-in life drawing sessions open to all.
Location shown on this map | Contact us by email
2012 times are:
Saturday morning 10:00 to 12:30.
Usually year round except for the Xmas holiday period and Mazey Day Saturday in June, please check for details at the website lifedrawing.me where you can also find some useful information and galleries of drawings done locally. Yes we do keep drawing all summer.
How to find us:
we meet in the spacious and well-lit Orchestral Society rehearsal rooms at the base of Queen Street about 100 yards from the Promenade in Penzance, Cornwall TR18 4BJ, as shown on this map. It's a blue door, without a number, in a granite building just downhill from number 7. That's just a few doors down from the Vet's and roughly opposite number 13, a bit uphill and across from the Navy Inn. This is also the venue used for the Penzance Quaker Meeting on Sundays. If the door of the Band Room, shown in photos above, does not open readily, please knock firmly. It's about ten minutes walk from the Penzance bus and train stations, please see map, and a short journey from St Ives, St Just, Hayle, Newlyn, Sennen and Land's End, or anywhere in Penwith and West Cornwall. In fact it is a short, level walk along the scenic Mount's Bay seafront from the historic art colony and fishing port of Newlyn.
These popular drop-in sessions are suitable for all levels of ability and experience, and there is no need to book a place. Please bring your own drawing media, and allow a bit of time to set up at the start. You can use whatever you choose, for example pen, pencil, crayon, wash, charcoal, pastel, watercolour, gouache, oil, acrylics and other paints, or even a touchpad computer, tablet, or phone. Occasionally people have chosen to do monoprints, or do 3d sketches in clay. There is also an excellent art shop just five minutes walk away in Penzance's historic Chapel Street.
The Penzance Arts Society group was first set up in 1984 by then Penzance Arts School tutor and well-known painter, the late Colin Scott. When Colin Scott's Victoria Studios closed in 1999, some participants chose to continue the Saturday life drawing classes in new venues at affordable fees. Although there is no dedicated teacher as such, most are happy to share tips and advice and from time to time special day-long workshop sessions are held with a single pose throughout to work on a more complete painting or even sculpture. Typically sessions begin with short, quick poses as warmups and then move on to some longer poses, with at least one of half an hour or more. Chairs and drawing boards are available, and the life models change from week to week. A very few easels are usually available, but to be certain of having an easel it is always best to bring your own, as many already do. There are no tables at all available.
Drawing from the figure, also called figure drawing, has been an essential practice and discipline for artists for centuries, including in recent times the local Penzance School of Art, the Newlyn School painters, the Newlyn School of Art, and even the well-known St Ives School in the twentieth century and the present day St Ives School of Painting. It's also been offered at the local Penwith College course and the former Penzance Arts Club, as well as the Land's End School of Art in Sennen. Figurative work can also be seen in many art galleries in St Ives in the present day.
For further info please contact us by email.
To publicise this you can link to this page (ideally with the link text "Life Drawing in Penzance") or download and print the publicity materials, specifically the posters and business card which both contain QR barcodes so people with smartphones can grab and share the necessary details instantly. This web page should work well on mobile devices as well.
