Brockley Adult Education Centre, London, 10 February 2024

My first all-day booking of 2024 was this class at Brockley Adult Education Centre, led by tutor Joanna McCormick. Temperatures both outside and inside were mellow for mid-February, but warm-up exercises for artists are nonetheless de rigueur:

1-minute pose – expressive scribbling with a graphite stick
2-minute pose – circles and triangles with coloured pens
3-minute pose – graphite shadows and blending with a eraser
4-minute pose – hatching and cross-hatching with a black pen
5-minute pose – background as a starting point

After this flurry I sat to one side while students were shown a short video on the work of artist Curtis Holder. Jo followed this with further tuition and demonstrations. Once everyone was thoroughly inspired, I presented a seated pose of 30 minutes.

A short break followed, then out came graphite pencils, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils, and watercolour paints. Jo demonstrated techniques with each, before I took my seat once more and remained in pose for 45 minutes… which became 50.

I was nicely comfortable and gladly agreed to a 5-minute extension. We took time out for lunch, then settled down to one long pose that completed the afternoon. I fidgeted into the most cosy reclining attitude achievable, and stayed there for 90 minutes.

Such beautiful vibrant spiritual works; such diversity of vision and interpretation. This wasn’t a group of highly-experienced classically-trained artists, but each one opened their mind to a freer way of seeing and mark-making. That’s my idea of art.