The Figure Revealed IV
Life Drawing: Half Hour Pose in Two Voices
Atrium Art Gallery
University of Southern Maine, Lewiston-Auburn College
November 9-December 14, 2012
Opening reception, Friday, November 9, 6-8 p.m.
Bruce Bulger, 25 Minutes, graphite, 13" x 20"
Roberta Goschke, Summer Session, oil, 11" x 16"
Edward Zelinsky, Model and Students, graphite, 23"x 17"
Life Drawing
Every week the artists gather in light-filled rooms around
ever changing models who stand, lean, lie nude before them.
The artists return to see, to deepen their seeing, to train their
eye and hand to sketch, draw, paint. The artists return to
learn, develop, challenge, stretch, hone, sharpen their skills
for decades. The artists return to reveal feeling that murmurs
through the body, to reveal what is human, to reveal what is
tender about living in the body. The artists return until their
looking becomes effortless, until their hand brings this living
body into form on paper, effortlessly. A devotion for a lifetime.
-Elizabeth Garber, poet
Michael Walek, Peter in the Garden, gouache, 10" x 9.5"
I. The Model
Feels like a really good pose
Thank God
Some of them wear me out
This one feels
like I’m in some old painting reclining on a
pile of pillows
They asked me to put my
arm back behind my head I look off to the
side Gives a lift to my breasts Hey in this
afternoon light coming in the big window I
have to say I don’t look half bad
Heat’s
good Not freezing my ass off like that one
time My friends roll their eyes Weirdest
thing to do to get a break from the kids
Strange but it’s my best way to get some time
alone to think
It pays the sitter
But
look at that belly
Third baby left these
stretch marks
Maybe they won’t see them
Wonder if that older guy thinks I’m still a
looker
but his face is scrunched up all
serious He’s hunched over his paper
scribbling notes glancing up and down
again Should tell him
to loosen up
I
like listening
to the chalk and pencils
scratching
around me Kinda strange
but peaceful Look at my legs stretched out
dark on one side
light on the other I
start to see
like they do Light and
shadow
Never seen my leg look so nice
Eyelids
heavy
Watch out the window
Pine trees so still
That tree’s taken on
one hell of a long pose
One branch
reaching up with green fingers on the end
How do trees do that year in and out?
Oooh! My nipples tightened Who opened
the door? Cold breeze
Hope no one
noticed
Like swimming
at Knight’s
Pond last summer Warm currents
then
I’d hit a cold patch
(sigh)
I love this
My chest
starts breathing
on its
own
so peaceful
stretching out
and in
Little rivers of air
move in
and out of my nostrils
I feel air
across my breasts
Wonder if they can see
my belly rising
feels soft
like the pond
breathing
rising
and
falling like
floating so gentle my skin filled
with
silvery light and shadows
I feel beautiful
-Elizabeth Garber
Donna Asquith, A Sunday in November, watercolor, 9" x 12"
Richard Jacobs, Katrina, watercolor, 11" x 15"
Martha Bovie, Pete, watercolor, 8" x 5.5
II. The Artist
How lovely with her arm behind her head
gazing off to the side
She reminds me of
Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus
More relaxed
than Goya’s reclining nude Look at her
gazing out the window
She’s so pretty
there “The heart flutters” I love that line
from Garcia Marquez
In my 20s I was so
afraid I’d get aroused seeing a nude model
but in ten minutes I was totally immersed in
how to shade her skin
So glad our model
has a more mature body There’s substance to
her 19-year-old bodies seem unreal to me
now Love North light reflected off the bay
Winslow Homer says it’s the best light
Hmmm
How do I want to place her on the
page
Don’t know what I’m looking for
Have to wait
until the drawing tells me
where to go Nothing like pencil on paper
Some people are making great sweeps
of charcoal on paper fast gestures map out
the body in abstract shapes
Not me
my Beaux Art training so precise First year
all we did hands and feet most difficult parts
of the body so complex
a breast and
abdomen are just shaded spheres
I try to
catch the spirit of the pose
At home I’ll take
three days to finish it
Have to get the
eyes mouth
nostrils shaded
The
chiaroscuro around the breast
in
contrast with shading the nipple
Gives a
feeling of flesh
and substance
Love the
light raking up the body
soles of the feet
abdomen and breasts
all the same light
I love a languid pose
on brocade pillows
Puts me in a different century
(sigh) We
all have a body
When we are nude we
look like all of us
allows us to see if a
knee or breast doesn’t look right
I love a
model
who’s comfortable with being nude
There’s a Gaia feel to this woman’s skin
I
could extend her legs a little
make her
look more willowy
but I love how relaxed
she looks
She has softness to her
(sigh)
Nudity
is sacred
To be
comfortable
in the body
is so intimate
A gift
this model gives us
She trusts
us
with her body
I feel tears welling
This beauty
is such
a gift
-Elizabeth Garber
Delores Rollins
Kathleen Rummler
Sandra Stanton
Sharon Townshend
Michael Walek
Cornelia Walworth
Noel Watson
Richard Winslow
Edward Zelinsky
The Figure Revealed IV
Sandra Stanton, Scott/Study, oil on canvas,
9" x 12"
Robyn Holman
Curator, Atrium Art Gallery
Atrium Art Gallery
University of Southern Maine
Lewiston-Auburn College
www.usm.maine.edu/atriumgallery
Essays for previous Figure Revealed exhibitions are
available on our website: www.usm.maine.edu/
atriumgallery
Reception, free and open to the public
Friday, November 9, 6-8 p.m.
Grateful appreciation goes to jurors Joel Babb and
James Strickland and to poet Elizabeth Garber who
wrote Life Drawing: Half Hour Pose in Two Voices for the
exhibition.
Nancy Morgan Barnes, Robert Pollien Painting, oil on board, 11" x 16"
November 9 - December 14, 2012
n an effort to promote working from a live model,
the Atrium Art Gallery at the University of
Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College in 2003
presented a state-wide juried exhibition exclusively
focused on work created in the environment of a life
drawing group. Its success led to subsequent figure
exhibits, leading up to The Figure Revealed IV. These
small drawing groups exist around the state,
somewhat in isolation, their members working
quietly with focus and dedication. Since most work
created in these groups is not intended for exhibition
but as practice, we have an opportunity to enter the
private world of artist and model and to better
understand the tradition they continue.
Juried exhibition of work created in the
environment of life drawing groups
I
The Figure REvealed IV
Bonnie Lashin, Figure II, charcoal, 18" x 24"
Address Service Requested
Lois Anne
Donna Asquith
Olena Babak
Nancy Morgan Barnes
Jane Banquer
Stephanie Berry
Todd Bezold
Martha Bovie
John Bowdren
Martha Briana
Bruce Bulger
Anita Clearfield
Charles Cramer
Paula Dougherty
Laurie Downey
Liz Evans
Keith Eveland
Michael Fletcher
Roberta Goschke
Stevan Hall
Hara Harding
DeWitt Hardy
Pat Hardy
Simon Harling
Paul Heroux
Michael Heskanen
Richard Jacobs
Matthew Kelley
Joe Klofas
Bonnie Lashin
Janet Ledoux
Eric Legassie
Diane Lent
Margaret Leonard
Robert MacLeod
Janet Conlon Manyan
Mark A. Mellor
Lou Kohl Morgan
Molly O'Rourke
Carole Palmer
Pierre Patenaude
Wendy Newbold Patterson
Lincoln Perry
June Roberts
51 Westminster St., Lewiston, ME 04240
207-753-6500; TTY: 207-753-6511
Artists in the Exhibition
November 9 - December 14, 2012
Atrium Art Gallery
University of Southern Maine
Lewiston-Auburn College