In June 2023 Merthyr attended a daily life drawing course in Paris, working alongside a group of practicing French artists at L’Academie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse.

Chagall, Modigliani, Fernand Léger, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Miró, Chaïm Soutine are some of the artists who passed through this school.

 

"Drawing every day changes the way you see the subject and gives you freedom to experiment with technique and materials.

My drawings improved and I was able to just sit down and draw which is what comes with constant practice. “Seeing” became easier and resulted in better constructed body rendering and allowed for more freedom to interpret which was what I was after.

 

Drawing from life gives a better sense of the heft of the body of the model in a way that drawing from a photograph does not. The models were dancers, mime artists and actors and their bodies were strong and lyrical”.