Life Class (Figure drawing from model) - Thursday evenings in March in Brisbane - at the Royal Queensland Art Society

I am excited to be starting a regular life drawing class again - this time in the beautiful upstairs studio at the Royal Queensland Art Society! Inner city Brisbane on Petrie Terrace.

Come and have a glass of wine, forget the outside world, and meditate on the magic of drawing the living human body in a supportive and enjoyable environment. I will guide you through a series of activities designed to familiarise you with or improve your mastery of the core elements of drawing the figure, there will be both group and one on one instruction/ demos.

The content will be drawing from the model working through the Elements of Classical Figure Drawing from the Form, Gesture, Anatomy course.

elements of classical figure drawing banner.jpg

We will cover the following five areas - both separately and then reintegrating them together.

1. Blocking in and accuracy - key landmarks, orienting masses in space in relation to each other, analysing form and gesture in essentials, in particular the torso

 

2. Thinking in Volumes - seeing/feeling and drawing the body as large masses, and constructing/ depicting subforms using only line.

 

3. Design principles in the human body (and nature generally) - S curves, C curves, and straight lines, line weight, harmony and variation, counterbalance, extending lines as far as possible, looking for a major line of design and related lines

 

4. Gesture and exaggeration - finding swing and rhythm to the line, taking the observed pose and exaggerating this slightly, telling a story with the body - making it move

 

5. Rendering - principles of rendering form in light and shade, types of rendering, points about rendering in different media, options for direction of linear rendering,

 

Enrolled students will be given a membership with one month of access to the Form, Gesture, Anatomy Course online book (can be extended if desired by choosing one of the payment options). You may prepare for the class by following the activities in the notes, (particularly from the Fundamentals of Form sections). How to do this will be sent to you upon enrolment.

I recommend parking on the right hand side of Petrie Terrace across from RQAS (it is a one-way street) because there is 4 hour free parking after 7pm. Note it is a clearway until 7 pm.

5th, 12th, 19th, 26th March 2020

7:10 to 9:40 pm

(this timing allows you to access parking on Petrie Terrace immediately after the clearway ends at 7:00pm - please arrive at 7pm)

Upstairs workshop space, Royal Queensland Art Society

The door will be unlocked prior to class start or you can buzz or call me on the number pinned to the door.

Regular price for 1 class : $70 Australian Dollars, for 4 classes: $240 AUD

Full Time Student for 1 class: $40 AUD, for 4 classes: $120 AUD

To access student discount, proof of enrolment in a tertiary institution will be required at the first session attended.

Art Vs Kitsch: my take on it

You might have seen on social media the #kitschified campaign recently. This is something that originated with Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum, and he is one of the painters that I admire most - of this or any other time. So I have some sympathy for this movement, which you can read about at https://kitschified.info/ if you’re not already familiar. However, I don’t agree with all the conclusions here, so I thought I would articulate how I think about this topic.

While I remain uncertain whether the term "Fine Art" ought to be abandoned (it can, at the very least, continue as a useful label to subsume plastic disciplines), I do know that the delineation of Art Vs Kitsch has helped me to navigate my way in my own practise, or more precisely helped me to not lose my way in certain respects.  I see the reclamation of the term Kitsch as a defence against many errors that I have made, and probably would have continued to make, due to the pressures from the mainstream art world.  Like racial and sexual preference slurs embraced by the victims, it makes a point of pride out of that which has been previously demeaned.  When Kitsch is understood as the inclination towards the Classical, an impulse besieged through most of the 20th century, it says: "Yes, I am sincere, even if it makes me vulnerable to the attacks of irony.  Yes, I want to make something that will bring deep enjoyment and inspiration to an intelligent layperson, not only please a cultural elite. Yes, I care about human beings and I have empathy for our foibles, admiration for our strength to endure, and capacity to grow psychologically, not only criticism for our corruption.  Yes, the yearnings of the soul matter, just as the needs and wants of the body here on earth can be good and wonderful - the subjective human experience matters.  Yes, I am going to be dramatic, even at the risk of being melodramatic - because underneath the ordinariness of day to day life, to be born a human, to live and learn and struggle and love and die is, in the end, pretty damn dramatic - and I'd rather err on that side than be too cautious and not do it justice."

Let us suppose that one shares, roughly, the sentiment above, ambition might well dictate the desire to be seen in contemporary museums and high profile cultural events, such as the Venice Biennale.  Yet the values held in these places are often very much at odds with the original impulse described above.  It is easy to get caught up in trying to fit in and the desire to be legitimised by the art world, and thus to become confused and drift away from the original calling.  I know that I have, and I have seen this effect in others.  I have been to museums all around the world and I know the type of experience to expect in the contemporary museum: a kind of Disneyland for educated adults - a little bit of short lived "huh, clever", a dash of irony, a little bit of cheap shock, something intentionally poorly executed, or perhaps executed by a talented sub-contracting craftsperson at the direction of the Artist, and a nod to certain fashionable political views.  Perhaps even some knowing winks to market manipulation.  The genius present in the works of a contemporary museum is often in the way that these things can be massaged together to fit in with the requisite vibe, not in the works themselves - a culturally self-referential involution.  I expect to be entertained for a short while, to not particularly want to return, and to probably leave a bit deflated and bored.  Not all contemporary art is like this, and there is some very well crafted and stimulating work made.  But the specific absence of things that could be truly compared in ambition to a Michelangelo, and the shrill need for newness at any cost is hardly going to be beneficial for those of us whose original impulse is to measure our progress by the standard of the Old Masters.  

So I think of it this way: Kitsch as a reclaimed title points to the legitimacy of the the impulse towards the Classical: the work of the plastic imagination in articulating and exploring the human condition.  No punches pulled, no concern of being too similar to the giants whose shoulders we stand on - I will use anything I can find to create the depth I am looking for.  Kitsch is not so much a label I place on myself, as a subversive north star (fits in your pocket when to go to the museum), and a reminder of a slippery dynamic be forgotten at your peril.

Scott Breton, 2020 “The Same Ocean” Oil on Linen, 146 x 112 cm (Diptych)

Scott Breton, 2020 “The Same Ocean” Oil on Linen, 146 x 112 cm (Diptych)

New Illustrations and free trial extended for for the Form, Gesture, Anatomy Course...

I’ve added a bunch of illustrations to the Table of the Contents for the Form, Gesture, Anatomy Life Drawing Course, that are designed to help clarify the approaches to figure drawing and logic that connects them. See them all at www.formgestureanatomy.com

For those of you who signed up for the Free Trial, this used to expire after 2 weeks but now in permanent - so if you signed up in the past you can now access the first lesson and the other free bonuses again (even if your original trial ended). www.formgestureanatomy.com

Mac Slideshow Application for drawing practise

Phoenix Slides Slideshow Application

For Mac users, this free app called “Phoenix Slides” allows you to create a randomised slideshow from a folder of images, and set the duration for each image, pause and go back or forward. This allows you to practise say 1 minute drawings, or 30 minute drawings, with randomised poses, and skip poses that you don’t want to draw. (similar to what www.line-of-action.com provides with their practise image library, but here you can use your own image library such as those you can purchase through Posespace.com

To download Phoenix Slides, go to:

https://blyt.net/phxslides/

Works well and free, but think about making a donation to the creator Dominic if you appreciate the App!

Recent Articles by Scott Breton on TIAC Academy website

Digital Painting to work up a pencil sketch into colour

I took a photograph of a composition sketch in pencil, and transferred to iPad Pro, and worked up the colours there. Lots of possibility to change big things quickly. It might become an oil painting, though that would require a lot more further investigation in paint. The program is Procreate.

Visiting with Michelangelo

In this quick video, we go on a tour to a couple of my favourite places in Florence, and see some of Michelangelo’s most spectacular sculptures.

Below that, you will find a few of my studies from these places - the Michelangelo’s Medici Chappell and the late Pieta by Michelangelo in the Duomo museum.

The first two were from my first visits in 2013 and the ones on brown paper was from early 2019.

Solo Show at Lethbridge Gallery opens this Friday 12th Oct 2018

My new solo show “Whispered Ocean Hymns” at Lethbridge Gallery (Paddington, Brisbane) opens this Friday 12th October, in the evening from 6-8pm, and will be up until the 31st of October.

Below are some of the works from the show, and the full catalogue can be viewed at https://www.lethbridgegallery.com/artist/scott--breton

Prices will be available on the Lethbridge Gallery site from midday on Wednesday the 10th October, and sales will open by phone at this time via the Gallery on (07) 3369 4790

Hope to see you at the opening!

Digital Invite_Scott Breton_2018.jpg
“The Outsider” 213 x 71 cm Oil on Linen

“The Outsider” 213 x 71 cm Oil on Linen

“The Sea Has Many Voices” 102 x 1985 cm Oil on Linen

“The Sea Has Many Voices” 102 x 1985 cm Oil on Linen

Black Water (Tea Tree Creek) 61 x 120 cm Oil on Linen

Black Water (Tea Tree Creek) 61 x 120 cm Oil on Linen

Curvature (Study) 26 x 30 cm Watercolour

Curvature (Study) 26 x 30 cm Watercolour

Drawings at Brisbane Grammar Art Show 2018

The drawings below will be displayed at Brisbane Grammar School art show this year (Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill). The ticketed opening (sales now closed) is on Friday the 14th September, but will be free to see on Saturday the 15th. I will be there from around 10 am to 1pm, so come and say hi!

“Inflection Points” Graphite on Paper


“Psyche” Graphite on paper

“Inwards Frontier” Graphite on paper

 

“Falling Upwards” Graphite on paper