ONLINE LESSONS WITH QUENTIN BLAKE
Art galleries may be shuttered, but, behind closed doors, artistic activity “continues apace”, said Louisa Buck in The Art Newspaper. Artists of all stripes are finding new ways to inspire people to make the most of the lockdown and to paint, draw or sculpt with handy tutorials. The Turner Prize-winning conceptualist Keith Tyson is giving online classes; photographer David Bailey “has given a painting demonstration in his garden”; and Grayson Perry’s new programme on Channel 4, which began this week, is giving art lessons to our “housebound nation”. Anyone looking to teach themselves from scratch has a multitude of options, said Jane Dunford in The Guardian. The “basics” of painting and drawing “can be learnt using free resources”. The American artist Lois DeWitt’s free-online-art-classes.com, for instance, is great for learning about draughtsmanship. For those willing to pay a little, the London Art College has a beginners’ drawing course which takes three months and costs £190, as well as 30 courses for all levels, from landscape to still life.
For painting, however, you should look to the late Bob Ross, whose art programmes were a feature of US TV in the 1980s, said Todd Spangler in Variety. His YouTube channel – “stocked with about 380 episodes of his iconic show” – is available for free, featuring hour-long lessons that provide as good an artistic apprenticeship as any. Rather more exciting, perhaps, are the free Instagram tutorials that many artists are holding under the hashtag #IsolationArtSchool, said Susannah Butter in the London Evening Standard. Figures such as the illustrator Quentin Blake, the portrait painter Jonathan Yeo, and the taxidermy specialist Polly Morgan – as well as David Bailey and Keith Tyson – give helpful and “encouraging” advice to would-be artists, and provide “a welcome distraction from reality”. From learning how to draw a foot, to making mobiles, it’s “full of ideas for those who lack inspiration” – a helpful and just slightly addictive tool for tapping into your creative potential. Indeed, “I was so absorbed that for a few minutes I forgot about Covid-19”.