Charcoal drawings by Deva Purnam (Kurt Niederhaus)
There’s something deeply grounding about drawing from life in a room full of focused artists. Most of my charcoal portraits and nudes are created in these communal sessions – with a live model, timed poses, music and concentrated observation. It’s a space of collective stillness, where everyone is looking, translating and interpreting in their own unique way.
Our group has been in existence for well over thirty years with some members attending regularly and others occasionally. I have been going weekly for most of the last thirty years and found that it helps to keep my focus on my art even when life seems to throw the usual demands and distractions at me.Plus it is a nice change from the usually solitary work environment of the visual artist.
I usually begin with fast, gestural lines to catch the movement and structure of the pose before it shifts. That first moment is all about energy – about recognizing the weight of a hip, the tilt of a shoulder, the glance of the face. Once that’s in place, I move into layering. Charcoal is ideal for this: it allows both softness and precision, the freedom to erase and redraw, to carve light from shadow and smudge texture into skin. I use a charcoal pencil for the fluid gestures and compressed charcoal when I want to deepen shadows or add sharpness and large parts are actually done with my thumb.
In these sessions, time is limited and the body changes slightly with each breath. That constraint sharpens my instinct. I’m not aiming for perfect likeness; I want to capture a sense of presence, of the model being there, in that moment, with us.
Drawing this way is an act of connection – between me and the subject, but also with the group. Each drawing is shaped not just by the model’s pose, but by the quiet, shared attention of the room.
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