Cathy's Art Diary

Nice little exhibition at the Mall Galleries of life drawings from this art group which meets weekly with over 100 artists on its books. It was interesting to spot pictures obviously done at the same sitting so you got a sense of the sitter from various angles plus you could compare the approach the artists took. My favourites were Graham Wood’s simple water colour of female nude lying down from the back and Kalpna Saksena’s rather broken up images. Closed on 7 August 2016.  

Fascinating exhibition at Tate Britain in their archive room looking at the role of the artist model and the life room. I particularly liked the displays in the middle of the room which looked at the lives of models such as Eileen Mayo who worked for Dod Proctor and Laura Knight. The display included Christmas cards to her from Knight and Duncan Grant. Round the edge of the room was the story of how life drawing shaped art teaching and how   modern artists have used and reacted to it. There were wonderful works by Gaudia Brzeska, Hilda and Sydney Carline, Keith Vaughan and many more. It was interesting to compare styles by seeing many artists working on one subject.