Madeleine Wood

Tell us about your practice and the part that drawing plays...

Whether I am working with installation, print making, collage or animation, drawing is always at the root of my work. For me, drawing is another form of thinking. I draw in order to process and make sense of my feelings. I often weave memories, imaginations and observations into curious and layered narratives that unfurl across the page and out into the gallery space.

What were you doing before The Drawing Year and what drew you to apply?

I graduated in 2020 from Edinburgh College of Art and applied for The Drawing Year in my final year, but I didn’t get a place, which in hindsight I’m thankful for! I decided to stay in Edinburgh, and over the next three years, I was lucky to be awarded two residencies and have several shows across Scotland and in London.

Those three years gave me the chance to explore my practice outside of education, helping me better understand myself, my work, all of which made me ready to apply to The Drawing Year again.

I applied to The Drawing Year because I simply wanted to improve. I knew there were gaps in my practice—certain formal issues I kept facing—that I wanted to address. For example, how to create believable depth and space in my drawings. I felt that an intensive period of study, regular drawing practice, and the guidance of tutors and peers would help me push those areas forward.

Which courses have most impacted your practice?

It was a constant combination of courses that had the most impact on my practice -- particularly in the summer term. This was my favourite part of The Drawing Year.

For example, I began developing a drawing that I did in a class with Paul Fenner. The drawing was of a part-imagined, part-observed building. I then translated it into a hard ground and aquatint etching plate in day and evening etching classes with Maggie and Rossen. Later, I continued working and testing the etched composition on a much larger scale in the studio. I trialed colours and composition again in Drawing: Intimate Dramas of Mood and Colour classes with Mark Cazalet and Shanti Panchal. In this class, I was able to experiment with combining observed space and figure with the already familiar, partly imagined composition.

I felt so free and excited by taking snippets of imagery, thinking, approaches, ideas from different tutors and classes into other classes and getting new perspectives on them. This was the moment when things began to really sing for me.

Tell us about the sense of community on the course...

The sense of community is strong on the course and across the whole school.

I was nervous at first about making friends, but you soon get to know everyone super well and in some ways you kind of don’t have a choice but to make friends. It happens so naturally! It’s very nice, too, that a lot of the tutors have done the drawing year themselves, even Fraser Scarfe, Head of The Drawing Year. It means they have an understanding of you as a student in a really nice way. The tutor-student relationship is not a traditional one. Tutors are colleagues. They feel on a similar page to you but are further along in the book.

Core days were a great opportunity to connect with fellow Drawing Year students. They are special days because we were able to use both studios, which occupied the whole top floor. It felt like concentrated time just for us. I found core days were less intense than other classes. Each core day was led by a different tutor, and we would often go to the pub after. Shout out to the Barley Mow!

Which tutors have you most enjoyed working with and why?

Charlotte Mann. I really enjoyed her enthusiasm, and the huge intention and attention she brought to the classes and asked of us. Charlotte was imaginative and ambitious in the tasks she set us. I felt she unraveled, questioned and expanded my approach to observation. Charlotte’s tuition broadened my capacity to observe and to deeply understand, respect, and play with ways of seeing.

I learned a lot from the tutors Sophie Charalambous and Geraint Ross Evans. I only had a couple of classes with Sophie, and I met Geraint on the Italy trip in the summer, as he was one of the technicians. Sophie and Geraint, in their own ways helped me understand drawing distances. They are both very open, kind, and attentive tutors. With just two short explanations at the right moments, they helped me grasp something I had been having difficulty with, and it stayed with me since.

There are so many great tutors at the school. This experience showed me that even small conversations with tutors who aren’t your main ones can have an impact. Sometimes the way they phrase something can make everything click in your mind.

What are the most important things that you've learned during the year?

How to care for and bring attention to things that sit outside or around the act of drawing. For example, spending time just mixing colours and thinking about their combinations, exploring paper colours and textures, and taking regular breaks.

The confidence the year gave me in drawing from observation has been deeply valuable to me. It has completely dissolved a childhood notion I had that drawing from observation is ‘boring’ or ‘too difficult’! Instead, I found drawing from observation is so exciting, surprising and ever changing. It makes you do things (marks, tones, explore colour combinations) that you wouldn’t normally do. This approach is so refreshing and nourishing to your practice!

I have come to realise and experience how broad the variety of my mark making is. Now I know that I can access a much wider range of marks than I was familiar with before. I’ve learnt which marks relate to my certain moods or energy levels. I’ve learnt about the power of subtlety and how to pair gentleness with roughness. I have learnt how to activate and work with my different speeds.

What has surprised you about The Drawing Year?

I was surprised at how challenging being in classes felt at first. I had never been in an environment where you are often drawing the same set up, life model or have the same objective as 12-16 other people so regularly. Though drawing in front of people could feel challenging, exposing, and sometimes quite embarrassing if your drawing was not going well, it was a good lesson in self-confidence and resilience. To keep going, keep working, keep trying.

The collective focus was really amazing. An external student that was in One Day One Pose with me described it so nicely. She said, ‘After covid I thought why would anyone go back to the cinema when we’ve all got so used to watching things online? It’s for the same reason as why we are all here: collective looking, collective focus, sharing in the flow with others. It is a special feeling.’

How has your approach to drawing changed since the start of the course?

I think I am more patient with my approach to drawing now. Throughout the year I pushed on with drawings in a way that I perhaps wouldn’t if I were alone. The year showed me how getting through the point of frustration in my drawing was healthy and helpful. As it tipped it over, I often discovered something new and surprising on the other side. I think that is particularly present in drawings where I was really trying to look (observe something) and keeping at it, even though I was finding it difficult. These drawings hold an alive energy which is not always there in my imaginative work. I am intrigued and excited by that. It feels nice to know I can draw like that.

Rossen taught me how to notice and encouraged me to pay attention to my focus and energy. He taught me to use that to my advantage rather than be taken away by it. This helped me to be patient in a way that I don’t rush or consistently add more. Instead, I am selective and methodical, choosing to push further and listen to what is already there. Rossen also helped me to see the difference between line and tone and how to use tone ‘tonal rhythms’ to enhance lines, particularly in etching. It sounds so simple but was a big turning point for me!

What opportunities have arisen due to The Drawing Year?

I have a place on The Young Artists Teaching Traineeship program, which is a great opportunity. One of my favourite parts of it is the chance to meet and work alongside other Drawing Year alumni. It is an entrance into an even richer Royal Drawing School artistic community, filled with likeminded, lovely, and inspiring people. I have enjoyed the opportunity to continue to learn from these tutors and to see how they have processed their own Drawing Year learning. Particularly in how they distill their knowledge through teaching Young Artists.

It provides me the chance to do the same and to further digest parts of what I learnt on the year. I hope teaching this coming term at the National Gallery will allow me to engage with the collection in a different and deeper way to how I did as a student on the course.

What does it mean to you that the course has no fees and a free studio space?

It has been very special to have such an intense and fulfilling course paired with a free studio. The studio became like a second home, especially in the final term. We were all in the studio a lot. It felt such a privilege to be able to process and experiment with what I was learning in classes, in the studio.

What is it like to study and live in London?

The course provided a great way into London. I grew up in London and left when I was 18. I had been living in Edinburgh for seven years before the start of the course. I became an adult in another city, so living back in London felt a strange combination of familiar and very new. It was exciting!

I think London can easily feel overwhelming and sometimes isolating because of that. Being part of the Drawing Year course gave me a base, a community, purpose, and focus for being in London. It made the transition much easier and welcoming.

The out of house courses were especially great as they enabled me to explore and spend time exploring and observing parts of London I had not been to before and might never have gone to without it. I loved learning about the history of London. I loved its ancient roads and rivers and getting to draw inside Westminster tube station to Westminster Abbey. I enjoyed discovering historic anecdotes about the lives and ideas of artists and the city from tutors Paul Fenner, Henry Gibbons-Guy, Andrea Mclean, and Mark Cazalet. It let me see London from a unique perspective, as a researcher, archeologist, visionary.

What advice would you give to someone considering applying for the course?

To really know what you would like to get out from the course. And to be prepared to dismantle and rebuild what you think you think about drawing and looking.

Find out more about The Drawing Year