Guarding Against the Gaze

“This was the first life drawing I completed from a live model which I was happy with and started to convey my personal style. The model was not the typically athletic younger man which one often finds posing in life drawing studios, but instead an older gentleman in his early-70s with a more typically bodily form. I felt privileged to work with this model, as it allowed me to explore the ways in which beauty exists in every person and every body, if only the artist can use their gaze effectively to convey this unique beauty to the eventual audience. The title of the piece is inspired the slight contradiction between the model adopting an arms-crossed guarded pose whilst simultaneously being (literally) very open with the artists in bearing his full physicality for their own artistic benefit - it is as if he is somehow guarding himself against the gaze (and resulting assumptions) of others through his assertive posture.”

Vine charcoal on paper, 59cm x 84cm, 2020