Way back in the 1970s, the decade of style, I was a new student in Swansea Art College, in the Foundation course on the ground floor of the old Evan Rees Butter building on the Kingsway. I vividly remember the first time I did life drawing. We’d never done such a thing in school. The first Thursday of the first week, we had only just started getting to know each other and we shuffled embarrassedly as we waited for the model to arrive. In came Mrs. Griffiths, a larger than life character in a loud dressing gown. She walked over to the stool in the middle of the studio and we all ducked behind our easels. David and Pat, our lecturers, had seen it all before. They told us to come out from behind our boards and get on with it. That was the start of my enduring love of life drawing, which continued throughout my art diploma course, where I was taught by the wonderful Glenys Cour.
After I graduated, that was the end of the life drawing sessions, there wasn’t the Lifelong Learning setup that we’re used to these days. I used to hassle friends and relatives to pose for me, but I really missed the experience of working with a professional model in a group with other artists. Then Swansea Print Workshop opened at the beginning of the new century and I heard rumours that there was this chap, Steve Jones, who was running a life drawing group on Thursday evenings. That was it for me, I was back in the groove.
At the time, life drawing was deeply unfashionable, some art colleges didn’t teach it (some still don’t) but SPW has always been committed to encouraging drawing, a lot of printmaking processes are underpinned by the practice. Steve Jones has kept the Thursday life drawing group going for over a quarter of a century now, with hardly a break for holidays or illness, and was joined a few years back by the monthly Friday morning group, organised by Patti McKenna-Jones. Life drawing has come back into fashion again, with three other groups in the local area.
We’ve worked with some terrific models of all ages, shapes and genders and they’ve inspired this current exhibition. There’s no teaching, people just pitch up with whatever materials they want to bring and get stuck in with charcoal, pastels, pencils, paint, inks, chalks – if it can be smeared onto paper it’s fair game, with a huge diversity of styles. We hope you enjoy looking at this new exhibition and here’s to the next quarter of a century of life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop.
Rosie Scribblah
A selection of work in the exhibition is available for sale from our Online Shop.
BETHAN TOVEY WALSH
Bethan Tovey-Walsh is a linguist specializing in bilingualism, semiotics, and computational linguistics. She loves sewing and embroidery, often finding inspiration in her linguistic and computational work. Life drawing is a new medium for her, since 2025, and she is enjoying slowly developing her artistic skills.
Ieithydd yw Bethan Tovey-Walsh sy’n arbenigo ym meysydd dwyieithrwydd, semioteg, ac ieithyddiaeth cyfrifiannol. Mae hi wrth ei bodd yn gwnïo a brodio, yn enwedig pan gaiff ysbrydoliaeth gan ei gwaith ieithyddol a chyfrifiadurol. Mae bywlunio yn gyfrwng newydd iddi ers 2025, ac mae’n mwynhau datblygu ei sgiliau artistig yn ara’ deg.
MARK COOPER
“Art is the imagination at play….”
“Don’t take yourself too seriously…”
MELVYN WILLIAMS
When I first went to college it was to study illustration. I quickly learned that life drawing was the single most useful class to attend. I was taught to look at the model, more than the paper. To hold my pencil in a way that forced me to use my arm not my wrist to draw, to work quickly and throw away my eraser.
Life drawing was where I really learned to draw and it was the sheer repetition that did it. Also, the freedom of knowing that most of my drawings wouldn’t be very good. Once I abandoned the concept of producing the perfect drawing every time, I upped the pace and ditched the preciousness.
What you see in this exhibition is a tiny fraction of the drawings I have done over the last few years in the life drawing class at the print workshop. The fact that we do short as well as long poses gives me the opportunity to do some of those throw away drawings that just might produce a bit of magic. When they do, they are probably my favourites.
I leave all the lines in so you can see exactly where my pen or pencil has been before arriving at the definitive mark. All the workings out are there. Occasionally I use my life drawings as the basis of a more finished piece, but I prefer the liveliness of the first impression. What I like to think is the hand of the artist, as opposed to the stamp of the craftsman.
PATTI MCKENNA
Patti Mckenna is a scouse artist who prefers to speed- sketch/paint the human form. Trained as a muralist, she currently teaches portraiture as well as short courses in aspects of urban- sketching and ‘walk and draw’ in South Wales, London and Brighton. Her personal practice involves developing speed-sketches into ensemble-portraits or prints. She has been running informal life-drawing sessions in Swansea and Neath for over a decade.
ROSIE SCRIBBLAH
I work weekly with professional life models, as drawing underpins my art practice. I’ve been doing life drawing since I was in art school in the 1970s where it was a core subject in the curriculum. I no longer feel the need to be anatomically correct or to do an academic drawing; so much experience for so long has freed me up to play; to experiment; to relax and see what happens.
I find that I am very influenced by my models, both their physique and their personality. I take some time to get used to them; my drawings in the early stages tend to be a bit more academic. But once I am familiar with them, they develop their own style, which is largely unconscious, I don’t overthink.
ROSS FORBES
Touched by Fire | Exploration of the Good. Exploration of the self. Expressing these ideas (art) and exploring what comes back – in essence: grasping ideas from where they come, a divine exposition, grasping, knowing. Reaching for the self – from the transcendental, the expression of which becomes art, revealing the essence of ourselves to the other – we are sensitive beings!
Reaction, expression, the nether-realm, where we understand ourselves. It does not come from an earthly place, but it betrays the real. The true. Guided by a silent hand. Our art – our fire – our hearts and minds – conceptually freed. And inspired. Get it out there! When it comes back, it will repay you tenfold! Perpetuate yourself and your community. Make art!
Taste it. Roll it around your tongue. See how it feels……. Don’t worry. I like juice, too!
Ross “The Boo” Forbes
https://rossforbesabstractions.blogspot.com
FB: The Art of The Boo
THOMAS GUEST
I’m Thomas Guest, a Swansea-based artist. I’ve been practising life drawing on and off all my adult life. It is always challenging, always inspiring and always rewarding.
My thanks go to the wonderful models and to those who organise and host the sessions.
VICKI JAMES
I did my first life drawing in about 1977 at the university extramural art department in Durham and have continued on and off ever since at various life classes wherever in the country I’ve lived. I can’t remember when I started going to Steve’s fab Thursday life sessions, but it’s well over 15 years ago. I used to go straight from work, but now I’m retired I find the journey from home in Rhossili to town is a bit far – but I turn up when I can. Always good fun, always a challenge!