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 LESLIE
DAVENPORT – known simply as ‘Dav’
to everyone who knew him – was a quiet, thoughtful man and,
although extremely economical with words, he was always ready to
offer a few words of advice, or encouragement, to his students
– usually ending with his ubiquitous ‘man’!
He loved his art, especially painting out-of-the-ordinary local
scenes, such as buildings in scaffolding, demolition sites, gasworks
and anything to do with sunflowers! Dav was also very passionate
about his ‘Life Class’, as Albie and the other students
were soon to discover...
ONE
DAY, IN JANUARY 1958, Dav told Albie, and the other
artstudents, to spend the morning in Norwich Castle museum looking
at the paintings of John
Sell Cotman of the Norwich School of Painting.
“Study
his watercolours carefully,” Dav told them, “who
knows, you may even learn something, man!”
Whenever
he could, Albie would slip away from the crowd and that day was
no exception. Instead of joining the other students in the museum’s
art gallery, he made a beeline for the Bronze Age room to admire
the intricate work that had gone into the gold torcs and bronze
axeheads! Soon, he was joined by his friend, fellow art student,
Geoffrey from Eye in Suffolk.
“I
really can’t see any sense,” Albie said to Geoff,
“in tryin’ to copy another artist’s technique,
can you, Geoff?”
Geoffrey
was in total agreement. “No-oo,” he replied, pulling up
a chair and sitting down beside a display case of shards of pottery
and glass beads, “besides, we should all be a-doin’ our
own thing, I would’ve thought!”
With
that he began sketching one of the Bronze Age funerary pots, with
its elegant zig-zag detail.
ALBIE
AND GEOFF GET A TICKING OFF
The
two students had only been in the Bronze
Age room a few minutes when Dav breezed in.
“I
knew I’d find ya here, man!” he exclaimed with
an air of exasperation. “You’re s’posed to be studying
Cotman’s watercolours – not messin’ around
with a load o’ antiques!”
 “But,
Dav,” protested Albie, halfway through a sketch of a
bronze axehead, “just look at all this here form an’ detail...
an’ the surface texture...”
“I’ll
give you form and surface texture,” Dav replied, “wait
’til next Wednesday when you’ll be drawing from life –
then you’ll see what form is, man!”
Albie
had heard murmurs regarding the nature of ‘drawing from life’
– people with no clothes on – but surely mere sixteen-year-olds
wouldn’t be allowed to sketch naked people, would they, he
thought?
“Is
that true, Dav?” he asked nervously, “you know, this here
life drawing stuff, do we... I mean do they...?”
Dav,
anticipating Albie’s question, succinctly, though abruptly
replied: “Yes, man, next week you’ll draw nudes!”
“That’ll
make a change,” laughed Geoffrey, “from all this learnin’
about dead artists stuff – but I hope she’s pretty...”
“How
d’ya know that’ll be a ‘she’, man?” replied
Dav, “we do have others as well, y’know!”
ALBIE
ATTENDS HIS FIRST LIFE CLASS ...
The
following week, Albie settled down quietly in the Life Room. This
was to be his big day, and he was about to draw a real, live,
in-the-flesh model – of one sex or another.
All
the first year art students, boys and girls alike, set out their
easels in a graceful crescent shape, in front of which was a large
wooden cube to provide very basic seating for the model – but,
which was it to be, a man or woman?
Suddenly,
the door opened and in strolled a fair-haired young woman, clothed
only in a dressing gown. Sitting herself down on the wooden cube,
she
quickly threw off her gown and struck a pose, as large as life,
in full view
of the room full of students. For some, it is to be hoped, that
was their very first sight of nakedness!
Albie
just stood there, hiding behind his drawing board set high on the
easel, fiddling with his piece of cartridge paper fixed to his drawing
board. Then, plucking up the tiniest bit of courage, he peeped out
from behind his easel!
...
AND HAS AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT
“This
here’s Jenny, from the hospital,” said Dav, breaking
the silence. “So, make a start – an’ let’s see
what you can do, man!”
 Albie,
raising his pencil at eye level, began to draw some foundation marks
on his paper, which was attached to his drawing board by a brand-new,
shiny
spring clip
at each of the four corners.
Then,
the unthinkable happened – one clip flew off, and, as
if this was not bad enough, it fell within inches of Jenny’s
naked feet!
Hoping
no one would notice, Albie
did... absolutely... nothing!
As
the lad kept sizing up the model with his pencil elevated to arm
height, he
became aware of all eyes upon him, and
sensing the uncontrollable surge of blood to his face accompanying
his acute embarrassment, he just wished the floor would swallow
him up.
“Go
on, man,” laughed Dav, joined by all the others, “go on,
Albie, pick it up. She won’t bite, y’know!”
Albie,
by now resembling a well-cooked lobster, sheepishly made his way
forward to retrieve his errant spring-clip, keeping his eyes well
and truly lowered. But, as he bent down to retrieve the clip, he
ventured a glance towards Jenny and eye contact was made between
them.
The
Life Class model gave Albie such a sweet, reassuring smile that
put him at his ease and he began to feel quite proud of himself
for conquering his embarrassment – and he even joined the other
art students in their laughter!
“An’
if there’s something you’re unsure about,” continued
Dav, with a wicked glint in his eye, “go an’ have a closer
look, man!”
Albie
never did, of course!
When
it was time for Jenny to take a well-earned break, Dav produced
a piece of white chalk and marked out the position of her bottom
and feet, so that her pose could be repeated after a cup of coffee
and a cheese roll in the Art School canteen.
In
fact, as time went on, some art students were privileged
to perform the ‘chalking ritual’ from time to time –
and Albie was proud to be counted amongst the chosen few!
THE
EPILOGUE
At
the end of the autumn term, Albie and the other art students cleared
their lockers of all the work they’d accumulated over their
first term at the Norwich School of Art, taking most home with them
for ‘safe’ keeping.
“What
hev you got there, Albie?” asked his mother as the lad
struggled indoors with an armful of life studies, all tightly rolled
and sealed with Sellotape.
“Nothin’
much,” he replied, hoping to hastily conceal his works of art
in his bedroom cupboard, away from prying eyes. “Just some
o’ my work, but nothing much cop...”
“Let’s
hev a look, boy,” said his father, grabbing a rolled up life
study from the lad, “I’d like to see how our hard-earned
money’s being spent – wun’t you, Gladys?”
As
he undid the sticky tape the drawing sprung open, revealing Jenny
in all her glory, just as Nature intended – and his eyes almost
popped out of their sockets!
“Wha’s
this? ” Albie’s father shouted, throwing down his
son’s drawing in rage.“Disgusting, I call it –
I dun’t know wha’s got into you, drawing filth like that!
Just you wait ’til I give that there Principal bloke a piece
of my mind...”
Grabbing
Albie’s drawings – his first term’s work – he
stormed outside into the backyard, returning empty-handed a minute
or two later.
“There’s
only one place for filth like that,” Albie’s father
told him, “an’ tha’s in the dustbin where it belongs
– with all the other rubbish!”
NEXT:
Albie goes fruit picking
and enjoys some ‘entente cordiale’!
Please sign Albie’s guestbook
as I would love to hear your comments –
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