Life, Skin & Bone

Drawn from the past.

Life, Skin and Bone is a collection of studies drawn by Lawrie Groom and Jennifer Vandeleur at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. An independent academy that was established in 1904 in Montparnasse, at that time the artistic and intellectual forum of Paris. Apart from infrequent fresh coats of paint on interior walls, the building remains unchanged, mysterious and overwhelmingly crowded with ghosts of the famous.

Jennifer Vandeleur suffers from a compulsion to paint or draw, even though it is an exhausting enterprise, La Grande Chaumière has become a paradise for her; a place full of suggestion.

She seeks to express movement in the motionless poses of the models, the graceful gymnasts, actors and ballet dancers often drawing in charcoal, pastel and watercolour pencil. There is a soft, romanticised quality to her works that is emphasised by smudges, highlights of colour and her focus on the tone of the body.

In 2015, Jennifer had a solo exhibition of her oil paintings 'Mythology and Still Life' at The Design Gallery, Terrigal. The NSW painter and sculptor David Andrews was her tutor and remains a great inspiration together with Bonnard, Caravaggio, Delacroix and Egon Schiele.

Lawrie Groom has attended La Grande Chaumière several times since 2011, as well as, studying drawing with Graham McKenzie at RMIT and Martin Yeoman in London, he has also enjoyed en plein air oil painting in country Victoria with John Yule.

Lawrie is essentially an expressionist and enjoys the work of Denis, Modigliani, Moore, Munch, Redon, Rodin, Schiele, Turner and Van Gogh.

Lawrie's pen and ink drawings are simple depictions of the body that are reminiscent of Schiele's exaggerated shapes and detailed hands. Lawrie captures the imperfections and character of the models he observes with strong lines and lots of negative space.

"The power of long, single, precise but often exaggerated lines (and the spaces they create) excites my senses."

Influenced by the atmosphere of La Grande Chaumière, Jennifer and Lawrie's life drawings may have a little history on their paper.

Opening Drinks: Saturday 27 August, 2 to 4pm
Exhibition runs: 24 August to 11 September, 2006