Our RDS class this week investigated the narrative of space between two models. To prepare we started by looking at paintings and drawings by Edward Hopper, Walter Sickert and Alex Katz. The latter I’d not seen before.

All the artists communicated the sometimes strange relationships of figures within their pictures. Cherry pointed out how the spaces where the figures were located were critical to the narratives between them. Without the room, the space of a bed or the falling light upon a wall, the figures would have been lost and without meaning. Somehow the depicted space amplified the disjuncture between the figures. The Hopper paintings appeared completely ‘new’ after having been looked at this way.

Trying to capture a narrative between the two models was difficult especially as we were drawing quick poses, typically no longer than 20 minutes. Another excellent if hard class.