To Ipswich School today, with its fantastic Art department, to work on a portrait of my friend Claudia Bose, who’s currently their artist-in-residence. Claudia has generously been sitting for me once a week for 4 weeks, ever since I mentioned to her that I’d like to have another go at painting someone from life. Initially we were doing the portrait in her studio, but then we thought that the Ipswich School students could get another interesting take on artistic practice by watching and dialoguing with us about the work in progress. Normally, none of my studio work is ever from life, or even from sketches: the process depends on a particular intense energy between myself and the materials. But it’s always interesting to see what happens in a different setting, working in a different way. Painting a friend, and one who is herself an artist, is freeing: there’s no pressure to please the sitter as there might be in a commission situation. We were joined part of the time by a few students who worked alongside us. It’s quite nice to blur the boundary between making art and teaching, sometimes. I didn’t take a photo, so can’t show you the work in progress today – maybe next week. I’ll show one of Claudia’s recent paintings instead. See more at www.claudiaboese.info.
