I love life drawing, finding it relaxing and completely absorbing, a form of meditation. Time disappears with the flow of ink, line and charcoal.

When I can, I join Kathy Wray’s wonderful classes at St Saviour’s Hall in Plymouth, where she encourages you to try different ways of seeing and exploring the human form. She was asked by The Theatre Royal to put on a life drawing exhibition, and she generously asked the group to join her. It is quite unusual for a group exhibition to be inspired by life drawing, and a step forward in thinking for a public theatre to exhibit these works outside the normal gallery space. I felt very honoured to have two of my ink drawings chosen for publicity posters.

‘Chris’ (above) was drawn with inks on cartridge paper at an easel in the class in 40 minutes, hence the scribbled annotations and dribbling! My framer suggested that it was float-mounted to show the nature of the paper and stopped me from removing my written notes!

The line drawing on primarily orange ground shown at the top of this post ‘Loss’, is a self-portrait I made when my mother passed away during the Covid pandemic, and couldn’t visit her. I wanted to hug her…

I showed two original art prints on Somerset paper, reflecting on previous relationships. You can decide on the story! Below is a screen print using cut and torn newsprint stencils superimposed on a wood-block print (in black ink). Each print is unique and cannot be repeated.

Thank you to Kathy for choosing me to exhibit in such talented company, and to the Theatre Royal Plymouth for having the foresight to display such challenging work.