Artstore are the new sponsors of Glasgow’s popular life drawing group All the Young Nudes, and we’re over the moon about it!

The adorable folks that run the group deserve a big hug and a box of chocolates for all the hard work they’ve put into providing Glasgow’s art scene with a much needed alternative life drawing group, offering a chilled out atmosphere and good tunes as well as fantastic models with friendly faces.

Forget the usual stuffy classroom setting of traditional life drawing classes, All the Young Nudes is homed in Glasgow’s super kitsch, extra welcoming Flying Duck. Located just along the road from the Glasgow School of Art we reckon this life drawing group will wipe the memories of even the most horrific life drawing experience. No teachers, no right or wrong way to draw, fine music and a wee glass of wine. What more could a sketcher need?

Just in case you’re still in any doubt here’s 5 very good reasons you must attend!

Reason 1 – Practice Makes Perfect

You wouldn’t expect to pick up a violin for the first time and play a flawless version of a Vivaldi masterpiece, the same principle applies to drawing. While musicians start with Three Blind Mice, it’s so important that all would-be-artists draw regularly and set new challenges so that they develop the technical skill to do justice to all those fantastic ideas in their head when putting them down on paper.

Reason 2 – You Snooze You Lose

Just as body builders need to keep working out to maintain their physique it’s very important to work out your artistic abs, otherwise they’ll turn to mush. The life room is the perfect place to maintain your skill because it allows you to flex your talent and further develop your skills without the pressure of producing a flawless, gallery worthy piece of art.

Reason 3 – A Cure for Artist’s Block

When it comes to artist’s block, something is always better than nothing. Life drawing allows you to start being creative without the pressure of developing concept or finding a grand purpose for what you are doing. It’s also very relaxing therefore is great for anyone who feels anxious about putting their ideas on paper.

Artist’s block or a little bit of self doubt happens to even the most successful artists but it’s important not to let it stop you working. After all, it’s easier to build from the bottom up.

Reason 4 – Learn from Others

We don’t mean you should be comparing drawing or critiquing each other’s work (although this isn’t a terrible idea) but just seeing the tools other people use or grabbing a quick glance at what others are working on can make you want to try out tools and techniques you would never have thought of on your own.  For example, working with a dip pen and ink or using using a coloured paper.

Reason 5 – Getting out of the House/Studio

They say a change is as good as a holiday, so life drawing could be just what you need to breathe some life into your artwork and/or social life.

The class runs every Tuesday at the Flying Duck on Renfield Street from 8-10pm and only costs £4. But if you’re still anxious about attending, remember the All the Young Nudes motto: All welcome (no experience necessary).

What does this year’s GSA Degree show bring to 2011?

Through the warren of rooms and corridors that scale the heights and depths of the Mack building, we’re given a diverse range of work that seem to consciously invite us to look, listen, smell, embrace and participate within immersive spaces more closely than usual.  Perhaps moving away from the tethered boundaries of their departmental disciplines, the graduates have ventured into considering all possibilities within their work – sometimes incorporating multiple techniques such as film, sculpture, performance and photography in their degree show pieces.

Starting off in painting,  Sam Derounian‘s minimal theatrical set comprises from a library of stark self-referential motifs, quoting the work of artist’s such as R B Kitaj and David Hockney to create a playful and colourful naivety. Bold Gothic text and carefully restrained fragments of bright colour appear on a large white background as if carefully copied and pasted fragments on a word document.

Walking past a fading silk screen printed with the Warner Bros slogan ‘That’s All Folks!’ we enter Claudia Nova‘s slightly surreal environment ‘Hollywood Forever’. Confronted with undefined, mountainous human forms that glisten and desperately search against the flickering of an ‘Applause’ neon sign, screams of manic fans elevate elements of Lynch’s Twin Peaks sense of escapism and longing for nostalgia.

Rachel Sharpe’s raised platform covered with the remnants of a car wreck almost invites us to experience Warhol’s notorious red and black car crash screenprint in a virtual space – a blood spilled arrangement of objects are overlooked by copious reflective sets of grinning teeth and looped 1950′s cigar commercials.

Carefully incorporating the Mackintosh buildings own design elements in her space, Zara Idelson‘s beautiful abstract figurative paintings are arranged on a waist level shelf, supported by reproduction copies of the colourful banister rails of the Mack library. It feels quite engaging in light of a building and art school that’s on the brink of a new start in its long term redevelopment and rebuild programme.

Taking centre stage in the Mack gallery, Alice Steffen-Essex’s sculptural lamps studded with white PVC stilettos and cigarettes beam with gold light as they accompany a bed that glows with a glaring intensity – brash, proud and definitely here to stay.

Romany Dear’s canary yellow cassette walkman and headphones bring forward that looking at art has been taken back into the hands of the artist as we’re personally guided through a tour of the Mack gallery. We are taught how to look and even become a piece of work ourselves in the space as we become more self aware  – go on and strike a pose.

What do you do when you see a big red button saying don’t push? You push of course. Euan Ogilvie‘s interactive and rather macabre sculpture toys with human curiosity and interactions as people turn a crank handle contraption, waiting for peoples squeals to begin as dead mice get severely mangled behind a glass pane in a side viewing room. Oooh urgh.

Looking to photography, Jonathan Cottrell’s large scale photographs bring the viewer to the centre of derelict environments, blanketed and dank spaces such as the St.Peter’s Seminary in Cardross are pierced by points of light that offer a lingering beauty and sense of the Sublime.

Departing from conventional photographs, the imaginative creation of Ellinor Forbes, ‘Peachland’, documents an unseen and lingering dream world. Seen only by pets and Ellinor herself, she encourages us to buy a ticket and engage with it – all with the possibility of dining on unicorn meat.

An enjoyable change from the Mack and end to our look round the degree show, Theresa McCafferty’s narrative-driven bespoke pieces conjure up a dark and repulsive vision of  macabre Victoriana. Through the use of uncanny materials such as human hair, found photographs and bound book covers, she bases her pieces on traditional items such as a gentleman’s pocket watch or a ladies’ locket.