La Artista y Su Modelo
Friday, March 27, 2020
El artista y su modelo (the artista and his model) has an interesting ring when it is la artista y su modelo (the woman artist and her model).
For a few years when the 20 thcentury was becoming the 21 stI worked with a pair of married Argentine artists here in Vancouver. We worked in my studio, in their home and in a few odd places with models, mostly female but with some men too.
The two, Nora Patrich and Juan Manuel Sánchez, sketched while I took photographs. Every once in a while Sánchez would tell me to hold off from changing the pose of the model. Often we went to a round-the-corner café,from my studio on Robson and Granville, called Taft’s and we would discuss ideas with our models. Sánchez and Patrich would sketch to show us. The process that we called “colaboración” opened in me an appetite for more which has been thwarted here in Vancouver. I have been unable to find like-minded people like the Argentine pair.
Working in a group was far easier than when I take photographs of a model on my own. There is always that distance that must be kept and I have to look straight ahead at the model’s eyes. The relationship of an artist and model is one that has been studied and written about and illustrated with photographs or paintings. There was even this wonderful French/Spanish co-production.
In 2017 when Rosemary and I traveled to Buenos Aires I connected with a lovely woman who posed for Nora Patrich and me at Nora’s studio in Bellavista, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
When I took the photographs here (I have not used any, that show bits, that might offend anybody.
While I have participated in many a session like this one, I cannot get used to it and I experience an excitement and wonder. I am so lucky not to be a plumber.
Originally published at http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
