Drawing life in Rochester

The Rochester Draw offers life drawing classes to all artistic abilities. We find out what its all about.

It started with an e-mail inviting me to participate in a life drawing class. Organiser Julie Atwal explained that The Rochester Draw group launched in April last year, and was proving very popular.

This is how I found myself attending the Quaker Meeting House in Rochester on a Thursday evening.

Julie was not mistaken: The session was popular. I was one of 26 who had turned up to draw, and she was slightly concerned there would not be enough chairs available. Despite this minor worry, she is confident that a larger group size can be accommodated if its popularity continues to grow.

Julie is a life model herself. She started late in life a couple of years ago, and now travels all around Kent to inspire people’s art. “I just saw how much people got from it. I'm very much into arts for lots of reasons, including mental health. There is science behind why it helps relax you and what it does for your brain. It's a community thing as well.”

therochesterdraw

A post shared by @therochesterdraw

The room includes people with varying skill levels and experience. I haven’t done any formal art since Year 9 Art class over thirty years ago. One lady has turned up with her own easel and promptly gets her materials how she wants them. Thankfully, Julie is generous with the unprepared, and there are clipboards, paper, and drawing materials to choose from. Some are choosing pastels and charcoals. I select three pencils with a vague memory of why they provide different outcomes on the paper.

Julie is proud of this open approach to the process, where everyone works in whatever way suits them. “It's really interesting because you can listen, and you can hear the different mark-making that's going on. Seeing people working in pastel or crayon, what I love about it is honestly it's one of the few places I've been in my life, through all my different careers and different groups, where people just seem to be really supportive and non-judgmental from someone that draws rudimentary, to someone really accomplished artists.”

There are individuals here as well as groups. I am here with my partner and notice another couple arrive, meaning I am not the only man in the room. I sit next to a young woman who explains she has moved to Rochester from London, where she attended art classes regularly and was happy that this opportunity was now available. I am sat at the end of the horseshoe formation of tables and notice the other man has done the same. Paranoia sets in, and I wonder if it was an accident or design that we are now facing a room full of women as we prepare to draw a naked person.