Royal Academy Course: ‘female invasion’

I was invited to lead a Figure in Movement class at the Royal Academy in the historic Life Room in June. As my approach to drawing the figure is a fast, loose and intuitive one, this is a particularly exciting opportunity to challenge the traditions of life drawing, to keep it ‘live’ and ‘part of the conversation’ around contemporary drawing contexts.

I will be worked with a dancer-model to create a dynamic event in the theatrical space where Turner, Constable and the other Acadamicians studied life drawing. An art tradition, of course, that excluded women artists until the twentieth century! Women artists were considered ‘invaders’ into the Academy and referred to as the ‘female invasion’…