Pictures for Annie

I have been pondering life drawing since I posted here about my first class. Over the following 10 years there was rarely a time when I was not drawing naked people somewhere, somehow, however infrequently. I realise, thinking about it, that it is now almost 20 years since I have stepped into a life class.

The lovely Annie, who inspired my original post, has asked to see my drawings and I wondered how many of them I had kept. I remember one ruthless summer taking literally stacks of paintings and drawings to sell for a song to a man at a car boot sale. He seemed utterly perplexed, I was glad to be rid of the endless paper. I have tried never to be precious about my work. Many of the life drawings were charcoal on newsprint paper; not the most robust material for long keeping!
 
So this afternoon I have been rooting around in our outdoor garage hoping the works I had kept would not be badly damaged by the damp environment! It has been fun photographing and getting them into some sort of order (although the ones shown here are completely random).
I have also kicked myself firmly in the butt and after constantly promising myself I would do so, I have joined a drop-in life class. So in a few days time I shall be taking pencil, paper and serious nerves to enter that quiet, over-heated space of a naked person amongst clothed artists. Twenty years is a seriously long time, I am expecting to be back as the beginning, squinting at my pencil!