The Monthly interviews local artist, Skye Bompas – Part 2 – Life Drawing

How did your interest in Life Drawing begin?

When I went to Art College, doing my HND, I found that my skills really developed and it was the first time I had the experience of working with a live model.

I just fell in love with the process, and because I only had a limited amount of time with the model, I really pushed myself to paint and to draw. The way the model was, the poses, the expressions, really inspired me and I decided I wanted to do that too.

What happens then?

It took me a year to perk up the courage to launch into modelling, and when I did, it had a substantial impact on me.

I enjoyed doing it, but what used to happen was that I would be told to be nude, to sit still and be quiet, but I wanted more than that. So, I decided to set up my own workshops.

What is the difference in your life drawing workshops?

When I was modelling I found it a bit distorting that people would just know my name but nothing about me, and so I thought I would set up my own classes, with a difference! The artists would get to know the models, the muse, it wouldn’t just be about what they saw but also who the person is.

My classes are called The Naked Truth Art. The model chooses the music they use their props, we develop the poses together that naturally suit them and they tell their story. Each class is named after the model, or whatever name the model wants to be known by. When they tell their story they talk about why they wanted to model, what they feel about it, what they feel about the nude, their body. It can be very surprising what the models say about their lives and their bodies.

I want people to see the beauty in just the way they are. We had one person, he called himself the Software Man. After he did the modelling, I got a call a few weeks later with him excited to tell me that he had applied to do a naked bike ride in London, he felt that he had become very confident in terms of how he felt about his body and was proud of it as he road around the city.

It has been incredible experience. Either  I find people, some who have certain elements with their bodies that I might like to draw or paint or characters that have an interesting life story I want to hear and other people who find me. These people come from all over the place with many different reasons for wanting to model.

This class is about the model, and in the beginning it was a little hard to find artists, but now we get all sorts of people who come to draw and to paint.

What do you think this part of your practice took off?

I think it is popular because there is quite a diverse range of bodies and stories available in these classes, and there is a lot of societal shame attached to being nude and different. My aim is breaking that side of things down. In the art class we want these elements, these challenges. I think my own attitude to my own modelling, being confident, being enthused about being a model might have made a difference as well. It has been successful and transformative for people, I can’t stop it now. It has been running for nearly three years now.

If you want to find out more about Skye Bompas’ work see the links below

www.instagram.com/skyecbompas/?img_index=1

ww.facebook.com/SkyeArtScapes/about

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