Join us at the ECA Gallery at Old Town Hall for School of Life, an exhibition of Drawing and Painting by the Figure Drawing Club in Easthampton. Show runs March 9 – 28 with an opening reception on Saturday March 11 from 5-8pm.
The tradition of drawing from the nude model is an activity that dates back to the Ancient World. “Figure drawing” or “life drawing” was first practiced individually by the artists of antiquity but is more commonly connected with Renaissance master draftsmen and the French Salons of the19th Century. Picasso, Matisse and other early 20th Century artists are enduring and inspirational role models – we delight in treading in their footsteps!
The art we are exhibiting represents some of the work that is carried out by the current members of the Figure Drawing Club. Since the group’s formation twenty-five years ago, we have gathered to work in various locations, both in Northampton and Easthampton. We have recently found a wonderful, permanent home in the Keystone Building on Pleasant Street in Easthampton.
We are an eclectic mix of professional and semiprofessional artists, enthusiastic novices and curious devotees, unified by one purpose. We meet each Wednesday morning to wrestler with pencil and paper, brush and paint – to observe and translate the complex figure before us, in the hope of creating something meaningful and enduring.
In this exhibition, we hope to show an exciting diversity of interpretation. Ways of seeing are personal and subjective, unique to the individual. It also gives us the opportunity to stand back and view our work as a group – something we rarely have time to do.