Last week I returned to the beautiful Chapel Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park to lead another life drawing session, this time inspired by Nicola Turner’s extraordinary installation Time’s Scythe.

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What I love about these sessions at YSP is that each one becomes something completely different. I like to approach each one by thinking not just about the figure, but about the space we’re working in, the artist’s ideas and way of making, the physicality of the sculpture, the model’s own interpretation of the work, and the individual responses of the people taking part.

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Time’s Scythe was a particularly fascinating starting point. Its soft, tactile tendrils of wool and horsehair twist and stretch through the Chapel, ending in sheep shears that take on the appearance of claws. There’s something both compelling and unsettling about the forms — one of the words that came up in the group was “menacing.”

 

Our model is also a dancer, and she brought her own interpretation of the sculpture through movement, responding to its curves, tendrils and voluptuous forms.

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And the Chapel itself is such an important part of the experience. The architecture, the light, the scale of the installation and the feeling of being completely immersed in the work make these sessions unlike any ordinary life drawing class.

That’s what I find so exciting about this series. Every time, the combination of place, artist, artwork, model and group creates something that could only happen there, on that day.

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Truly unique, collaborative and very special.