Long Pose Figure Painting Session with Studio SLEW

What could you do differently?

writing prompt #1810

I could practice painting portraits…of actual people.

I consider my landscapes Portraits of a Place and I explore the stories held within spaces we dwell and capture the essence within said spaces. Portraiture is not in my practice. This is for good reason: the meaning behind my art is rooted in interconnectedness. Through my paintings, I explore the ecology of modern life and depicting exact faces and their features only distracts from interactions with others in their environments.

A person can be without a face, but a person is not a person without others. To be human is to be communal.

It’s through that communal aspect, however, that I’ve been drawing more figures up close. I’m in a group chat with a few friends that live in Brooklyn and we all try to meet up for figure drawing sessions when one comes along. On Sunday I met up with them to do a long pose figure painting session at Studio SLEW.

Studio SLEW

It wasn’t my first time at the nonprofit Studio SLEW. In fact, I just learned that a photo of me is on Studio SLEW’s homepage AND I’m in this recent video about updates to expect at Studio SLEW in 2026.

That footage is from a two-day painting workshop with Alai Ganuza in April 2025, more on that in another post.

The studio is an absolute dream: super comfortable set up, all that one could hope for regarding art in a group setting, and a great opportunity to meet other artists. The owner wasn’t there this time around, but good vibes were abundant, his staff was attentive, and all this for such a reasonable price: only $30!

3 hour Long Pose with Studio SLEW

Studio SLEW offers instructed-led art workshops in Brooklyn as well as New York nude and clothed figure drawing on Thursdays it looks like they draw several poses over the course of 2.5 hours with materials available. On Sundays they have a single long pose, 20 minutes at a time with breaks for the model and the artists. There are 6 of those sessions with a total painting time of two hours, the session is three. If you are painting you must bring your own materials. I personally couldn’t imagine drawing a person in the same pose for that amount of time!

This is what I had after the first 20 minute session. Last time I did figure drawing, I had the chance to do some rust-busting one minute drawing to take the edge off. I felt quite tense during the first two sessions!

This was about mid-way through. Teddy, another artist that works for Studio SLEW was walking by and admiring the work that was being made and he asked if he could feature a time lapse of me painting, which was such high praise! He said that footage should be out in about a week, and I’ll be sure to link it.

The End of the Session

I was not yet happy with my work, but I had only been painting for two hours!

This definitely looks like a person-albeit a sad person. But the model was drop dead gorgeous–I couldn’t leave her like that.

Monday morning I had a lot to attend to–I had made a post about a recent painting in my local parents Facebook group that was leading to a lot of inquiries.

I told myself I’d just rework it for an hour and then head to the cafe for email responding.

Y’all. I got LOCKED IN. I had to honor this woman’s beauty. I did the best I could and I’m far more pleased with the results.