OPEN STUDIOS / ART WEEKS        Oxford    (Nuffield)     02nd-25th May 2009

The idea of Open Studios or Art weeks, makes a greater impact on the Art World - and exposes our fellow neighbours to art as a natural element of our lives - rather than “that strange thing they do with each other in their smocks”

The idea has grown to such an extent in the UK - that it is almost possible to travel the country, year round, visiting studios day by day. You can find details of most of these exciting opportunities to view a wide variety of art works in friendly environments, at the Open Studios web site.

This year’s Open Studios event in Oxford, is the 27th year where the art of the area was open for public inspection and as always, contained many seemingly “Strange” bed fellows amongst the over 400 participating Artists in galleries scattered over the county area. One such was that of Gordon Kent and Martin Hayward-Harris in Martins workshop and Studio in Nuffield Oxfordshire.

Gordon is a skilled and much sought after Furniture maker with a wide range of superb and elegant items built to order for all areas of the home, garden, office and beyond. Martin on the other hand, is renowned for his exquisite sculpture - ranging from impressive public sculptures, such as the 3 meter piece celebrating the members of the Royal Tank Corps outside the MOD in London.

However, Martin is also much sought after for his delicate representations of wild life. Martins pieces are designed for display in the home - or to be placed in the garden, here they can be found around the country enhancing simple rural scenes - such as in this setting in Oxford.

However, occasionally, Martin’s skills take him away to yet another  area of his art in which he is gaining an increasing standing and where he is accepting an increasing number of commissions.

As always, Martin takes meticulous care with the detailed preparation for this work.

In this instance - the piece “Poise” which started life back in 2008, with a long series of studio sessions working with model Rosemarie Orwin, but was seen for the first time as the centre piece at the entrance to the Art Week event for Gordon & Martin.

If you would like to see more of Martin’s work, or to discuss purchasing existing works (Including “Poise”) or in commissioning new works, use the link embedded in the picture to the left showing the lovely smooth lines of “Poise” from the rear.

If you would like to discuss commissioning Rosemarie to collaborate with you modelling for a piece of your sculpture, then please use this link to e-mail her. 

SWINDON’s open studios event this year is in early September - keep returning to this site for much more information on SWINDON’s  Open Studio events.              

MODEL LEAD Life Drawing Workshop         SWINDON                17th May 2009

Despite the atrocious un-seasonal weather, artists traveled from Exeter, Winchester, Oxford and even a few from Swindon to the Moose Hall at the centre of Old Town for a lively session of Life Drawing in the on going monthly series of Model Lead figurative Art sessions delivered by Rosemarie Orwin’s modelled me uk.

The sessions always deliver models of the highest calibre enabling the artists to concentrate solely on interpreting the poses with which they are presented and “Exploring their Artistic Boundaries” without having to worry about the model shifting, twitching, sleeping or delivering mundane poses.

Rosemarie endeavors to retain models who bring that little something extra to the studio floor. This  could be a  a skill or physical attribute that adds to the models innate artistic delivery. They may be a dancer, gymnast, juggler, contortionist - or as in the case of the excellent model who also traveled (from London this time) to be with us - a lady who is a professional Sports Woman.

Jane was able to demonstrate developed muscle groups during her initial 5 minute poses by holding some of her stretching exercises such as you can see here (much to the delight of all attending). These presentations were followed by equally dynamic poses of longer length that lead up to a two hour pose split over the break.

If you would like to join us for the coming “inspirational” (All Day Sunday) Life Drawing sessions in Swindon, - or Gloucester, - please check the availability of the Classes page of the site, or if you prefer, e- mail us for more details or perhaps, simply to confirm your place with us.

In any case - please bookmark us or return to see more about Figurative Art in Wiltshire and the surrounding areas.         

WELSH TATTOO CONVENTION         Body Art     NEWPORT      03rd May 2009

Over her time as a model, Rosemarie has become used to being sculpted, drawn, sketched, photographed and painted, but recently she experienced an entirely different way of “being painted”!

Newport in South Wales, holds an annual convention for Tattooists and last year, a guest spot was made available for two of Wale’s leading Body Artists - John Davis and Simon Smith.

This year, they extended their area in the exhibition and invited Bibi Freeman, Linda and John’s Daughter (Bethan, who delivered startling examples of “Medical” Special Effects”) to show that Body Art has dimensions outside of the “Inked” varieties.

Rosemarie had been in discussion with John Davis from West Wales, who decided to adopt a “Ghost Rider” theme for the work which they intended to collaborate on for the show.

The piece commenced at 11.00 and during the following 7 hrs, John worked on three main areas:-

 1. A flaming skull

This eventually extended down her neck and blended into the second area

         2. The Waist Coat.

Here, john went to great lengths to ensure reality - even down to silver eyelets for the “Lacing” on the front and a “Strategically placed Business card in the “Pocket”.

The rear of the Waist coat showed a set piece image featuring Nicholas Cage.

The image to the right also shows John’s attention to detail in the business card placed in the “Back Pocket” of Rosemarie’s leggings.

          3. The Leggings.

Surprisingly, this is the element that  l took the longest time to create.

The first stage was to paint her lower half Black, before climbing in to a pair of Fish net tights. John then applied the White markings to her and in filled them with yellow and green to deliver the colouring of the “Snake Skin”. John and Bethan then removed the tights to leave the scale markings as you can see in the picture to the right.

The days activities were interspersed with performances from 3 excellent rock bands - but they received a short break in the evening, when the models were lead up onto the stage in order that the work of the artists could be clearly seen by all.

The models were all extremely well received and were kept on stage for many minutes whilst cameras were flashing almost continually.

Shortly afterwards, Rosemarie exited the venue to a nearby “Service Area” for a photo shoot. Some of the images resulting can be seen here.

Should you wish to see any more examples of Body Art, you could visit this years festival in West Wales that will be taking place this August,  or follow this link to a uTube round up of the 2008 event.

Rosemarie is hoping to attend the event this year and to meet with the many world class artists who will be attending themselves.

If you are a Body Artist yourself and would like to discuss working with Rosemarie - or would like to have “Living Statues” at a function, event or exhibition, please contact us for more details.

Finally, you can click on Rosemarie outside the conference centre image to see a short video of her being painted (Complete with one of the bands playing in the background).

MODEL LEAD Life Drawing Workshop         SWINDON             15th March 2009

Artists from across Wiltshire, Hampshire, Oxford and Worcestershire once again gathered made the journey to converge in North East Wiltshire for another of the highly successful model lead Figurative Art Workshops.

This session is one of two in March, - the next being on Sunday 29th, when after a break of almost six months from the rigors of modelling for Life Drawing groups, Rosemarie will be returning to the Art Studio to resume her Art modelling after recuperating from an illness.

The artists who ignored the splendors of that the delightful sunshine bestowed upon the countryside to concentrate on their figurative art for the day, were presented with a wide range of dynamic and interesting poses from a male model - new to “SOTFAGS” - but far from new to modelling - Arthur.

As a result of the feedback we received, Arthur will be joining our program again in SWINDON later this year, - so please keep returning to this page if you would like to see when you will be able to work with and from him.

For those Artists based around Gloucester, it will be of interest that Arthur will be modelling for the modelled me uk Figurative Art Workshop at Sabre Art (Quedgley nr Gloucester) on March 22nd. If you would like to participate in the event - please use this link to inquire into the details - or to secure your place

The session on March 15, also benefited from the presence of Arran Miles (well known Figurative Artist and Tutor) - who was available throughout the morning to provide help, comment and advice to those artists who requested it. Thus, the artists were able to pursue what ever style, medium or approach they wished whilst capturing the form presented to them, without the strictures and limitations sometimes imposed in a tutor lead session - but had the advantage of the knowledge and experience that Arran has if they required it.

We are delighted that Arran has been able to join us in the more structured but focused environment that will be experienced in the next (residential) Retreat that we are holding on September 17th - 20th September at the fantastic Tortworth Court near Gloucester (Just off the M5).

If you would like to see further details of this superb event, please use this link.            

Photographic Modelling               Penarth / Leicester               February 2009

Rosemarie’s modelling activities are varied and take her across the UK (and beyond) working with and for a variety of Artists, Sculptors, Photographers and Corporate Bodies. As her career progresses, she is finding that the Corporate and Photographic commissions are appearing more and more on her calendar

The photographic work is also broadening, - and in the first two weeks of February, Rosemarie travelled to a beautiful Boutique hotel near Cardiff and to a night club in Leicester where she worked closely with a photographer on a commission that will result in a series of images in the form of 4ft x 3ft canvases, which will be used to adorn the walls of similar hotels and clubs across the UK.

A different set of images was worked on to adorn the pages of a “Coffee Table Book” that will be published later in 2009.

If you would like more details of this - please click on the books cover to the left and inquire directly with the photographer.

We will be publishing information on this superb set of books in the near future, but in the interim, here are a few of the pictures from the two shoots that will be included in this project that currently runs to 3 Volumes

Here you can preview some of those images:-v

Life Drawing Workshop                    Old Town Swindon         02nd Nov 2008

The winter brings many trials - but surely one close to OUR hearts is the plight of the Figurative Art Model - who year round has to brave the temperatures placed upon them and continue to present poses to artists in “serene” isolation.  In the summer, the artists mop their brow and sup cooling drinks - whilst in the winter, they pile of layers of clothes and move around the Studio space to keep warm.

The Old Town life Drawing Group assembled with Artists Traveling from Winchester, Bath, Exeter, Oxford and beyond - in the usual light, spacious, but now COLD studio space at 09.45 when our model for the day Trudy pulled in at the end of her journey from Bath.

We are lucky that a combination of the general heating in the hall combined with the dedicated Space heating for the model enabled Trudy to not only survive - but also to deliver a varied ands exciting program throughout the day.

From the initial short dynamic poses at the start of the days session - which helped warm up every one - through to the long pose in the afternoon, every one was delighted with the variety, strength and grace which Trudy was able too impart and inspire in the numerous and varied pieces that the group produced in the six hour session.

If you would like to join us for the next model lead Workshop on January 18th here in Old Town Swindon, please use this link to contact us to request your place or to simply inquire into what facilities and services we provide.

Our full program for 2009 - which including the will include

• Model Lead Workshops
• Tutor Lead Tutor Shops
• UK Based Residential Figurative Art Weekends
• Week long European Figurative Art Study Trips

Use the link to the diary here to download a PDF copy of the events we will be delivering between now and Summer 2010