steve ritter

Arts Theatre, London, 25 April 2023

27 May 2023 11:09pm

After Painting the Figure, Portrait Drawing and Portrait Painting classes, plus another Painting the Figure, my fifth booking this year for City Academy at Arts Theatre was straightforward Life Drawing. Tutor Lawrence Crane began the session by sketching me in a 2-minute demo, then requested five more 2-minute poses for his students.

After these quick warm-ups I was asked to reprise my opening demo pose, now for a longer 5-minute demo. And then things got tricky: same pose requested yet again for an altogether more taxing 30 minutes. Poses concocted in haste with a 2-minute limit in mind don’t automatically translate to a static pain-free half-hour.

I succeeded in sustaining a precarious posture with twisted torso and elevated elbow for 18 minutes before seeking merciful release. After pausing to shake sensation into the arm that I’d hooked over my head, I completed the remaining 12 minutes. What a trooper! I recovered during a tuition theory phase, ending with a final 12-minute pose.

During the last pose Lawrence set his students their homework. He asked them each first to name an artwork or artist they found most inspiring, then to put that inspiration into practice before next week’s class. Meanwhile I stood nude, silent and scrutinised amidst all these notions, thinking about art that’s captivated me…