My week is a Venn diagram. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are spent working for Haematology Cancer Care, the charity at UCLH which supports the haematology unit’s patients and staff. On Thursdays I return to my creative work and draw as part of the portrait artist project that was my first involvement with HCC and ultimately led to the role I now do for the charity as a Fundraising Officer.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday are my days to be in the studio, hopefully paintbrush or pencil in hand. This routine is markedly different from the one I had for more than twenty years where I had all my day time to paint and spent my evenings keeping the wolf from the door by working at ULU. Getting used to this new creative rhythm whilst also adapting to and learning a new role has been challenging, leading to a studio with several paintings started but still in an unfinished state and this rather overdue blog entry, even by my standards!
Drawing however has offered a chance to keep my eye and hand coordinated, create images in one sitting and to provide an antidote to work and life stress, of which there’s plenty going around. Having taught life drawing, I’m reminded of the advice I’ve given my students in the past. Drawing regularly is a way to keep producing work whilst keeping at bay the sometimes overwhelming demands of life.
Here then are some of my recent life drawings and as this page title suggests, that means nudes so please don’t go further if you might be offended. As for my relatively recently acquired symmetrical week, that’s now also under threat of changes not dissimilar to those I experienced at ULU. Maybe the naked truth is that good things don’t always last and I’d better get back to the drawing board.
Thanks for reading.
Simon Tolhurst 