Cultivating presence

Honouring the sacred nature of the body as art

Life drawing

I first began life drawing in my late teens but at that time my inner critic was very much alive and repeatedly stifling my creative exploration. After a break of almost 25 years, I returned to drawing and began to see, that having cultivated more self-understanding, acceptance and presence, I was free to express my creativity more fully than ever before.

My drawings capture moments of intimacy, often with strangers. Moments witnessing the uniqueness of the human form. I draw with a sense of reverence. Honouring the courage of those prepared to sit and celebrating their unique form as a creative expression of nature herself. I offer my drawings in the spirit of balance in a world saturated by highly-manipulated, culturally damaging images of the body.

I describe the body using pen, pencil, charcoal and sometimes ink. I am exploring the process of creating pigments from wild plants and am keen to play with integrating these elements of the natural world into my work.

I am grateful for the fleeting moments of pure seeing where the desire to create slips away and marks are able to fall freely onto the page. I invite you to follow me on Instagram where I am posting my drawings, mandalas and poetry on along with photography of my adventures in the wild landscape, near my home in southern Spain.

This process of celebrating the body through art has helped me on the path towards deeper self-acceptance. I give thanks to each of the models for their fearlessness and their beauty.

Life drawing

“Pure intimacy, parted by thought, becomes a self and a world.”

Rupert Spira

Sam Lacey