Al Page

Tell us about your practice and the part that drawing plays...

My most recent works are large scale figurative works that sit in the interstice between drawing and painting. These works bring together individuals or small gatherings of people rendered at the scale of ‘real’ life in order to produce an embodied relationship between the viewer and the image. They are images of sociability, uprisings, waiting, rioters, criminals, citizens, dreamers and collaborators. My work is grounded in drawing. I work on paper with water based materials and I leverage the affordances that drawing has; speed, immediacy, intimacy and it’s graphic impact.

What were you doing before The Drawing Year and what drew you to apply?

I was then and am still now an artist. I have a studio in South East London and before The Drawing Year I was involved in my studio practice, making work, exploring and experimenting in the studio, exhibiting my work, writing funding and residency applications, seeing shows and collaborating. I was also maintaining a lively and meaningful teaching practice. I applied to The Drawing Year because I was making a new body of work, which were large scale figurative works on paper and I was struggling with the technicalities of making these images. The Drawing Year seemed like the right environment and the right community to learn some of the skills of image making that I needed to make that work. I have to say it worked far better than I could have imagined.

Which courses have most impacted your practice?

Overall the courses focussing on colour were enormously helpful. I also found working with the calligrapher Ewan Clayton taught me so much about brush mark, gesture and how my body works when I’m drawing. I also loved working with Martin Shortis the anatomy tutor, I found his take-no-prisoners approach enormously refreshing and I feel like I learned so much about the way the human body works as an object in those classes. I also loved working with Sarah-Lee Roberts and Clare Newbolt drawing in the landscape, I learned a massive amount about the placement of objects in 2D space from them. Working in the community of practice of The Drawing Year was revelatory, watching other people draw, up close and every day, seeing their approaches to materials and how they handled space and touch in drawings was such a gift.

Tell us about the sense of community on the course...

The Drawing Year was so special for a number of reasons. Firstly everyone on the course is so committed to the course and the standard of work is unusually high; secondly, there was such a supportive atmosphere in the classes and a real sense of people helping each other out; finally, there was a good deal of challenge that came from discussion with people on the course, both of my work and also my approach to learning. It’s a special place.

What has surprised you about The Drawing Year?

The thing that mostly surprised me was that inside this rather august institution with the Royal name tag exists an almost utopian vision of what art pedagogy could be. A pedagogy that is grounded in a rigorous approach to teaching through doing, a pedagogy that foregrounds the making of images as a way of learning how to make images.

How has your approach to drawing changed since the start of the course?

I now draw so much more quickly and I got very comfortable with people seeing what I was doing. Whereas my art education up to this point had been grounded in spending weeks making something to present for tutorial or crits the pace of work at the Drawing School is totally different, images are made and discussed and looked at almost as they’re arriving. At first this was terrifying and I felt enormously exposed but, as they year went on I really let my guard down and the classes became so much richer because of it.

What opportunities have arisen due to The Drawing Year?

The trip to Pignano is an amazing opportunity to spend time drawing in the iconic and timeless landscape of Tuscany. I also applied for and was awarded a teaching residency for 2023 in the Caribbean.

What are you going on to do after completing the course?

I am going to complete the residency in January – February, I then want to get back into the studio and organise some shows with some of the people I studied with. There’s also a couple of other residencies that are on my radar to apply to.

What support have the School been able to offer you, financially or personally?

The School have been enormously generous, not just in the fact that the course has no fees and the studio space but also with bursaries. Over the course of the 16 months the school awarded me 3 bursaries towards living costs, this was invaluable for allowing me to focus full time on my studies.

What does it mean to you that the course has no fees and a free studio space?

It made it possible for me to apply and do the course, if the RDS charged the same amount as most other MA’s in London (£10 - £12K) there was no way I could have done the course. The studio provision was a nice thing to have, though honestly I didn’t make much use of it since I kept my studio in south London going throughout the course. But for anyone else who didn’t have that privilege I’m sure it’s enormously valuable.

What advice would you give to someone considering applying for the course?

I’d recommend very highly that anyone thinking about applying does so. I think the course - while a very significant commitment in terms of time and energy – gives back so much. A graduate of the course gave me a really valuable piece of advice when I was considering applying, they said don’t think too much about what the structure of the course is and make an application as you would to any other postgraduate course of study in Fine Art. I think that was really valuable to hear.