It was advertised as “An opportunity for learners to develop sculpture skills using a clothed or unclothed life model”. I wasn’t too sure about the “unclothed” bit or about the “life model” if I were honest, but I like to think of myself as liberal and open minded.
When I had decided to take up sculpture, I had in mind making a badly forged vase or perhaps a mug for morning coffee? Still, it would be an eye opener if nothing else! So, since there were no entry requirements, I decided to chance my arm and enrol in the local “Adult Community Learning” college for the five week course priced at £38 – a bargain?! I must own that Fine Art and Photography have been life long interests, but if I am to be ruthlessly honest, my aims for the course fell short of artistic achievement. I hoped that there might be one of those moments when my eyes met those of an eager student across the classroom and changed both of our lives forever!
So, with mixed feelings, I opened a slightly shabby, blue door on the first Wednesday of the month to see what a “Sculpture Evening Class” could offer. It was a roomful of disparate, contrasts. Two young girls in their twenties, three older men – around fifty five plus perhaps and a couple of thirty-somethings … plus me. The Tutor, a forty-something lady with frazzled hair and a somewhat vacant expression, welcomed us warmly. Then she introduced our “unclothed life model” for the evening – Bill.
Yes, there IS an initial shock when a sixty-something male stranger disrobes before you. He wasn’t in the prime of life or condition. Yes, you DO start to spend an awful long time moulding the clay to form the gentleman’s elbow”. “That elbow is VERY hard to get right” you kid yourself … However, very quickly I forgot that there was a naked unknown stranger only four feet away from me and I lost myself in the clay.
No, my eyes didn’t meet those of another across a steamy classroom. But what I did discover in that Fine Art Sculpture class was that, models are people, skin is just skin and at the end of the day I was there to learn how to sculpt in five easy lessons for £38. All in all I got my money’s worth.