Christmas Holiday: Drawing at The National Gallery

About

Over five days you will experience an in depth analysis of the historical background, materials and processes employed by the old masters. Unlike the familiar experience of hurrying through blockbuster exhibitions, you will have time to enter into a deep study of a couple of key paintings each day and express your encounters with them. Stopping to draw these works - in your own way, and your own style uses a different part of your brain to cruising through the gallery looking, or photographing. It is a very different process of absorbing pictorial information. You will never forget what you drew. Ideas spring to mind as you draw and structure, colour and composition really will unfold before your eyes; there are surprises; jokes and puns even emerge. We will make drawn transcriptions from a selection of the renowned and less well known masterpieces from the collection including Van Eyck, Piero Della Francesca, Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Chardin, Uccello and Patinir. This procedure of drawing directly from the classical tradition has always been the bedrock of art education, enabling us to understand the technical and emotional legacy of some of the greatest creative minds. You do not need any specific art background to join us but enthusiasm and a willingness to reflect are essential. All levels welcome.