From the age of 18, London-based Maltese artist Iella (Daniela Attard) has been attending live art sessions, first at the Malta Society of the Arts' evening sessions and later at the vibrant life drawing scene of London, where she honed her skills in capturing the essence of her subjects by attending life drawing sessions around the city. Her drawings and other sketches are rendered from an illustrator's stylistic approach.

From portraits to nudes, each piece showcases the unique joy of life drawing as a discipline but also as means of building creative muscle memory for more significant projects and illustration pieces. Reference is also given to the people she has drawn over the years and hence the title of the exhibition, Everyday People, where models offer so much by becoming the subjects of her work, in various forms and sizes. Little is known about the subjects in these sketches, except the visuals created from the different perspectives and impressions of the artists drawing them.

Live drawing sessions are typically collective with art students sitting at their easels in a semi-circular formation, facing a nude model who strikes a pose on a dramatically lit platform with those drawing appearing to be concentrating on their task, which is typically to render the figure before them in black and white on a standard-size sheet of paper. In this exhibition, we're invited to have a look at all these sketches by Iella, which range in sketches drawn within various time frames. Some drawings feature traditional nude poses by various subjects and others feature more fun poses with models even dressing up to create more fun sessions.

Iella's 15 years' worth of such experience and drawings will be exhibited in Everyday People at Christine X Art Gallery in Tigne Street (corner with Hughes Hallet Street), Sliema, opening daily from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 1pm and 4 to 7pm or by appointment until 29 April. Entrance is free.

 

Photos courtesy of the artist