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Twenty-five years ago, a group of Sunshine Coast artists got together in Roberts Creek to draw the nude model, a practice which has been a standard part of artistic training for centuries. Since then, artists have come and gone, venues have shifted, and opportunities for life drawing have increased, but the original drawing group has continued its practice, most recently at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.
A show of the newest work of this group opened on Wednesday, Feb. 3, as a celebration of its 25th anniversary. These new vigorous drawings are in various traditional drawing media, and their hallmarks are spontaneity and immediacy. They have been untouched by the artist after the modelling session, and therefore show the very freshest impression of the human form the human artist can bring to bear. The drawings are unframed and literally paper the walls of the exhibition space, atelier style, resulting in a vibrant celebration of the diversity of the human form.
The artists represented in 25 Years of Life are from across the Sunshine Coast, some professional artists with many decades of experience, others beginning artists of little experience. The work in the show is from the generation of artists drawing at the time of the show.
The Life Drawing Group is an institution without the usual structural trappings of institution. There is no leader, though someone arranges for models and times the poses. The artists are drawn together by respect for the time-honoured discipline of drawing the nude and by a respect for the beauty and complexity of the human body. They are there to learn their craft, and the privilege of drawing the nude body in the wonderful space of the Arts Centre epitomizes the artistic nurturance and freedom of expression which the Arts Centre offers to the community.
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