The LARA is up and running! And it’s a proper working studio! A once run-down brick and dust-filled shell has been transformed. And she’s now a keyed-in shadow-shape of her soon to be n^th dimensional self. Not just easels and backdrops, plinths and shadow-boxes, but a fantastic array of natural light from the roof in the Life Room – albeit somewhat unreliable in the snow, we’ve discovered – and a fully functional cast-drawing room with directional spots. To say nothing of our international crew of artists/teachers and, most importantly, students!

From last summer’s two week course through to now, nearing the end of our third full term, we have been learning on our feet, literally. And the system works. Students have seen radical shifts and improvements, if irksome at times, not just in their ways of seeing, but in the nature of their work and their appreciation of it. We’ve found ourselves blessed with the models who are working for us, and the length of poses we subject them to – 3 hours of 20 minute blocks each morning for 6 weeks – has seen the full gamut of tension and relaxation in both models’ limbs as well as students’ work. And in the afternoons, it’s become apparent that if Charles Bargue’s good name is not being besmirched as creatively as possible on a regular basis, then he’s not doing his job.

The sight-size method can seem awkward at first – counter-intuitive even – more like cartography than art; but then the self always finds a way, in sometimes surprising ways. That’s the beauty of it. Everyone has their own funks and revelations. It’s a process and, like the mapmaker, not only is perfect accuracy useless, but the peaks and troughs are marked whilst walking the walk with instruments.

The Life Room is not real life, oddly enough, and our new doorbell is somehow going to represent that. But real lives are in it, and in the work we are making. At the same time as plugging away at eye-training, and working it all out, and making infinite small decisions, and trying to remember all the different things one needs to remember whilst honing skills. Letting rip is also essential: The drop-in evening classes are perfect. The models are hugely varied, poses short, music mellow, and teachers and students participate alike. And we’re finding the response to what we’re doing at LARA hugely gratifying. In some cases, there’s been a real ‘where’ve you been all my life?’ moment, when it hits home that these skills are being taught, or are even teachable at all.