Ben Quilty eager to draw us out of coronavirus isolation

People are drawing life lessons from enforced isolation, and artist Ben Quilty wants them to take up another.

Ben Quilty and his daughter Livvy in the artist’s Mittagong studio working on capturing Livvy ‘surprised face’. Picture: John Feder

Many people around the world are drawing life lessons from their ­period of enforced isolation, and artist Ben Quilty wants to encourage them to take up another.

Pick up a pencil and a sketchbook — and draw.

That’s the message of a short, online art tutorial he has made with his daughter, Livvy, 11, for the Art Gallery of NSW.

Quilty, who lives in the southern highlands of NSW, south of Sydney, said he made the video to help families find a creative outlet as they deal with the indefinite lockdown.

“All our friends are in units with kids in Sydney,” he said. “That’s what really made us think we have to do something. Home-schooling in a unit with no garden, and having nowhere to go, it’s crippling I think. Creating something is a very fulfilling thing to do, and a great way of dealing with extreme ­circumstances.”

The AGNSW closed its doors on March 23 and on Saturday launches its online program, called Together in Art. It will include new art commissions, performances, pocket exhibitions, interviews and art-making workshops for adults and children.

Gallery director Michael Brand said it was a strange experience to walk through the gallery bereft of visitors, but it was vital to maintain a connection between artists and the public. He said the daily online program would provide paid ­opportunities for artists.

“We want to keep their work in front of people’s eyes,” he said.

In the art tutorial, Quilty — winner of the Archibald Prize for his portrait of Margaret Olley — shows how to draw a face using mathematical proportions to ­ensure the eyes, nose and mouth go in the right places. He draws quick sketches of Livvy looking happy, grumpy, bored, sad and “normal” — normal, that is, apart from a long, bendy nose.

Livvy said she and brother Joe had heaps of notebooks and were always drawing. “I like drawing people, pets, I draw my dog,” she said.

Quilty said learning to draw was easier than learning to ride a bike, but at age 10 or 11 the ability is “taught out of us”.

“If you show a child those very simple tricks to draw a human face, it’s very empowering. Suddenly you have control of the ­medium, and you can create a likeness much more easily.”