Life: from Abu Simbel to the Great Pyramids

"I draw in order to stimulate and encourage my perceptual processes to help me see that which I am looking at, and in so doing I compile a gestural record of moments of magic both in my sketch books and within my memory"    Bob F, end of March 2025

In chronological order from my sketch book as I floated down The Nile for two weeks from March 5th to 19th, stopping off to explore temples, tombs and pyramids with a group of 40 like minded folk. Our engagement with 3,000 years of Egyptian history was awesome. Our discovery of their knowledge of the universe, their construction achievements, their art and culture was mind blowing.

We travelled on the SS Misr, originally a steam powered boat built in Preston in about 1916 for the British navy, then converted by King Farouk in the early 1950's as a floating holiday palace, and after a period of neglect restored in line with Farouk's specifications into a small and exotic cruise vessel. 

We started at Aswam with a four hour coach ride across the Sahara to the temples of Abu Simbel, then proceeded down the Nile to Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, Karnac, and numerous other sites and eventually to the Great Pyramids and the old Egyptian Museum and the magnificent new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. 

Here is our transport for the two weeks:

I will be adding some commentary on my sketches in due course..............................

An Intro to the next post: 'Latest 3-dayer'

I've always claimed that any drawing will hold a record of the making of that drawing. In other words, visible marks are not only a trace of the activity of producing the mark but also an indexical sign of the activity of producing the mark. So, again, I am placing an emphasis on what is perhaps my main pre-occupation when engaging with life-drawing - 'the process'. 

Within my thinking about process I am currently considering the question: 'Can perception work without memory being involved?' Is it possible to not draw upon one's past activities and experiences that are held within one's memory bank? If, as I also claim, that when life-drawing I often enter a deep meditative state, then I presumably have no control of how my mind is working and from where it is getting its inspiration beyond that which is presented in front of the eyes.

In my next posting I describe the change which took place over the three days as I moved from my comfort zone into a novel situation by producing drawings which are unexpected, unanticipated and have something new about them. The new, or even the sudden insight is perhaps the only kind of thought that's not based on memory.

I have also been giving some thought to the issue of whatever does appear on the paper cannot convey the entire story. What it does do is very selective. It becomes a record of a very personal set of perceptions of a pose, at a particular moment, and influenced by any of a set of variables, i.e. the model/artist relationship, the studio ambiance, the state of the artist's journey to the venue, any goals set by me for the session ahead, etc. etc.

I do enjoy the three day sessions over at Niel Bally's studio in Talgarth, Powys, just one hours drive from my home. I meet up with my life-drawing friend and colleague, Clarissa, in Abergavenny and we share the driving from there. Then after the three days I arrive home, fulfilled, satisfied, not exhausted but in a floating state of well-being. I usually open a bottle (Puglian Primitivo, is my obsession at the moment), put my feet up, put the telly on and catch up on my football team's exploits or, this time, Wales in the Six Nations (I make sure I have recorded all relevant matches).

I often make a few notes in my A5 note/sketch book (which is always with me)  to record my thoughts and events.

And so to complete this Intro here are three entries from my sketch/note book. Perhaps 5 minutes each done at different times over the 3 days, at the end of a drawing when I have time to fill, or perhaps to get an idea of what I am looking at.

Latest 3-dayer

February 8/10 2025 ........ in chronological order.........

Quote of the weekend from Natalie: " Bob always starts with his usual drawing and then surprises us with something amazing"

She said this as we gathered at the start of the third day, as Niel reviewed the work on the wall. She is right. I tend to start within my comfort zone with a pen in each hand, recording my initial responses and exploring the forms of the quick poses as they present themselves to me. Then over the three days I enter into a new world, which is unanticipated, not designed, unexpected, but often celebrated and relished by colleagues. 

As Niel claimed: "Bob has moved on"

So, the first four drawings below reveal no surprises. I've seen them before.

And then, a real attempt to move away from my parts approach, to engage with the whole.

I really enjoyed the process of making this drawing. First of all I love lying poses. I love the challenge of perspective. Yet above all I enjoy the exaggerated foreshortening and the advancing of the leg towards the viewer, with the rest of the body explained within and beyond the huge dimension of her lower left leg. This was quick drawing with my two hands exploring the forms, and resulting in a pleasing composition within the frame of my paper.

There then arose a very different approach. This next drawing started off with a toothbrush and a pot of charcoal powder. On the paper I brushed in the darker shaded tonal areas. So there were blurred blocks of charcoal but no precise lines at all to suggest the pose. I picked up a pen and a pencil and a few lines went in. Then a moistened brush softened the darker areas to suggest the anatomical forms. 

There then emerged a conversation about frames, together with my Hockney polaroid connection that when one looks at a pose, or a building, or a landscape, then one is not seeing the whole but one's eye is moving around and homing in on a part, then another, then another. The eye travels around focusing on one part after another. Now, each part can become a drawing in itself.

This next drawing contains a quick response to a series of short poses. Each, I believe tries to capture the essence of the pose. In each I tried to capture the principal of the gesture .

In the next drawing I am focusing a quarter of the pose in each frame. From slightly different viewpoints and drawn at different scales, but the four parts on the paper are juxtaposed in the correct spatial relationship, and when one stands back and views the drawing as a whole one can clearly make out the pose.

Here I am back to focussing in on one part of an overall pose within a frame, and responding to and attempting to convey the gesture: i.e. the weight from the leg as it presses on the toes, and the twist of the body.

This had a number of parts which then produced their own frames. At this point we stopped for lunch so it remains for me to return to it on a future occasion and develop the idea. I am looking forward to doing this. 

Here I am illustrating what Natalie was referring to. Something different. 

I have regularly claimed that during each 3-day session over at Niel Bally's in Talgarth, Powys, something new emerges to contribute to the continual evolution in my life-drawing journey. This is no exception.

In the first two drawing below I have set up a triptych of frames. From looking around one side of my paper on my easel I place into the drawing that part of the pose I am isolating (the lower legs). Then I moved my easel slightly and looked around the other side and place the head, arm and buttock. I then focussed on the central part of the pose which went in at a slightly different scale. Each part in its frame then moved over into the adjacent frame, and superimpositioning, overlap, and morphing took place. A result is lots of movement.

I had become fascinated by the challenge of drawing a face when looking down on it from above. So I took this challenge on at a large scale. The nose was the starting point and it was quite extraordinary how the lines of the forehead and the cheek kept moving around until they found their place (but this is exactly what takes place with a whole pose drawing, and eventually one reaches the right form and proportion. Having got the head to my satisfaction I then debated what to do in the remainder of the paper, and without too much thought there emeerged this lovely landscape of her tummy and beyond, slightly subdued in intensity of mark-making.

And finally for an hour or so at the end of day-3 something different again...............................

The thighs and tummy went in first - my first focus. Then I superimposed a breast. Then I superimposed the head. But wait a moment - there is a second breast which does not relate, spatially, to the first one. I am confused. Confused, because I am unable to recall my thinking at the time. Not surprising though....I am in a deep state of meditation, being taken over completely by the act of life-drawing, and the cognitive/perceptual depths of my process. This is a real therapy! Long may it continue!