We have moved! Our new website can now be found at WWW.ARTMACABRE.CO.UK
Please follow this link there to find our fresher, easier to use website with all of the latest on what Art Macabre Death Drawing Salons are up to and how to get involved.
This website was in use from 2009 to Jan 2017 and will remain an archive site for Art Macabre over that period.
What is coming up next, I hear you say?
All of our upcoming events below. Click on BOOK HERE for more info and details of how to book! Look forward to seeing you at our events.
Saturday 21 January, 2-4pm
@ The Book Club, Shoreditch DEATH DRAWING: SANTA MUERTE
Sketch our skull faced model Lou Lou, depicting the macabre saint Santa Muerte as we kick off the year.
£12 adv, £15 on the door. Book here
Friday 3 February, Art Macabre will run sessions at two different museum Late events.
FRI 3 FEB – ROBOTS:THE UNCANNY VALLEY @ British Academy’s Love, Sex and Marriage with a Robot Late
Explore robotics and romance, sex and cyborgs, with us at a specially themed event as part of the Late event exploring these future themes. With models Amy Kingsmill and FoxGlove (photo by Damien Frost).
FRIDAY 3 FEB: WILD ONES @ Wellcome Collection Friday Late Spectacular with Crick Crack Club.
Sketch Frankie Cluney as hairy Mary Magdalene and a wild man folk figure, plus special guests. Explore your wild side, inspired by Charles Freger’s photography and folk tales from around the world.
Photo: Frankie Cluney by Jake Spicer
Saturday 4 February, 2-4pm @ The Book Club, Shoreditch
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
1960s anniversary of the classic film and novel themed special. With models Manko and Carla as the leading characters Jennifer and Neely. Trace their fame and fortune and descent into addiction, drugs and depression. Tickets & info here
Monday 13 February, 7-9pm @ Tower of London
TOWER OF LOVE: ROMANCE IS DEAD – Drawn at the Tower with Art Macabre Valentines’ special
Join our anti-Valentine sketching special, dedicated to those who died at the Tower in the name of love. Enter the drama and tragedy of the Tudor court, and explore Henry VIII’s doomed love affair with Anne Boleyn. Sketch our costumed models as they pose as the doomed lovers’ ghosts at the very site of Anne’s burial in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
Guest artist Hybrid Desire.
Tickets £24/£20 concession. Info and tickets on sale here.
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Saturday 18 February, 1-3pm @ Rooftop Wigwam ‘Skye Halla’ at Queen of Hoxton
GAME OF THRONES– Mother of Dragons
Drawing Cult and Art Macabre return to explore Game of Thrones inspired stories of romance and tragedy, fantastical costumes and scenes once more! This time in the setting of the rooftop wigwam. Hot cocktails and mead available to drink in this atmospheric venue from the Vikings bar.
£15 adv TICKETS AND INFO HERE
Saturday 18 February, 7-10.30pm
RA LATE: A NEW SOVIET WORLD
Sketch model performers as they demonstrate a series of Constructivist and biomechanic exercises, as developed by Meyerhold and the roots of modern physical theatre.
Part of a wider programme of activities, performances and exhibition at RA Late inspired by Russia.
THURS 16 MARCH, 7-9pm
Emma Hamilton The Attitudes with Art Macabre and Frankie Cluney
@ National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Part of International Women’s Month.
Info and tickets here £15 includes exhibition entry and life drawing salon
We adore Autumn here at Art Macabre. Halloween may be over, but it is always time for deathly drawing and morbid curiousities here at Art Macabre! We embrace the darkness and the gothic side of life…come join us for some atmospheric sketching experiences and macabre mark making as the nights draw in?
Here is where you can find us this month…
VIKINGS: ODIN AND HEL Saturday 5 November, 1-3pm @ Nordic Rooftop Wigwam at Queen of Hoxton, Shoreditch BOOK HERE
PATHOLOGY COLOURING BOOK LAUNCH with Lozzy Bones and Carla Valentine, Wednesday 9 November, 6-9pm @ Barts Pathology Museum BOOK HERE
DRAWN AT THE TOWER: TALES OF MARTYRS with Lozzy Bones, Wednesday 16 November, 7-9pm @ Tower of London BOOK HERE
EMMA HAMILTON with FRANKIE CLUNEY: Seduction & Celebrity, Thursday 17 November, 7-10pm @ Royal Maritime Museum Late BOOK HERE
MIGHTY BOOSH Art Macabre Special, Saturday 19 November, 2-4pm @ The Book Club, Shoreditch BOOK HERE
MUSEUM OF THE NORMAL @ BARTS PATHOLOGY MUSEUM, 24 November 2016
Drop-in session with Amy Kingsmill and Drew Beckett modelling, as part of a wider event with lots of activities going on. Tickets and info here.
We had a brilliant time aboard the Cutty Sark historic ship last month. Photos from the event are now edited and up to view here
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For the merry month of May, we’re going to celebrate the blossoming of new ideas and London’s cultural communities with a series of ART MACABRE MUSEUM TAKEOVERS!
Explore some of London’s leading museums and galleries after-hours with Art Macabre life drawing salons. A unique way to enjoy temporary exhibitions, looking deeper and closer as you draw both the artwork and artefacts alongside our Art Macabre living statues and interventions.
DATES AND MORE INFO ABOUT OUR MAY MUSEUM EVENTS…
WEDS 4 MAY – MUSEUM OF LONDON: TATTOO LONDON
We respond to the TATTOO LONDON exhibition, placing beautifully inked life models within the museum’s atrium and invite you to play tattoo artist for the night on a blank human canvas too. Last few tickets remain here.
(photo: model Alice Snape, for Women & Ink magazine, who will pose to be drawn for us)
SAT 14 MAY – ROYAL ACADEMY: RA LATE VENE
TIAN MAGIC
We love being part of the RA Late events, where hundreds invade the galleries at night for after-hours exploration of the exhibitions, themed performances and participatory creative shenanigans (and cocktails). The next one is Venetian Carnival themed, so we’ll be featuring the incredible performer VIRGIN XTRAVAGANZAH posing as a saintly Virgin Mary as you’ve never quite seen them. BYZANTIUM LIFE DRAWING with Venetian Renaissance religious imagery with a twist and lots of decadent bling! It sold out super fast, as they tend to do, but for more info on other lates that we’ll be part of see their website.
Photo: Virgin Xtravaganzah will be our model. Headdress: Hysteria Machine. Model: Virgin Xtravaganzah (c)
FRIDAY 20 MAY – SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM: SARAH LUCAS -POWER OF WOMAN
We’re excited to be exploring the bold sculptural display by YBA artist Sarah Lucas in collaboration with Sir John Soane’s Museum. If you’ve not been there before, this could be a good first visit but there is so much to see there that you’ll need to go back again to explore the rest of the collection!
In response to Sarah Lucas’ bold exhibition of cast sculptures there, we’ll have model MANKO posing in a series of poses that focus on the Sarah Lucas exhibit three ‘muses’ – plaster casts from life of her female friends – in the stunning yellow Drawing Room. These sculptures offer a gritty, modern and natural twist on Soane’s collection of classical casts, and guests will draw inspiration from these by studying them in-situ. Manko will pose reflecting Lucas’ muses and the power of the female figure.to the artworks and questions raised by the artist.
Tickets are £20 each and available here
SUNDAY 22 
MAY – RA FRIENDS WEEK: GIORGIONE’S WOMEN
We’ll be back at the Royal Academy to explore the Age of Giorgione exhibition a second time, for two life drawing event for RA Friends. So if you
are an RA Friend, you can book to come and explore artist’s Giorgione’s portrayal of women with our two models Kitty and Lieve (two different aged yet equally beautiful and distinctive looking women).
Tickets available for RA Friends only £18 here
TUESDAY 31 MAY – UCL ART MUSEUM: REVOLUTIONARY DEATHS
To end our month of museums, we’ll collaborate with the small but crammed with arty artefacts UCL Art Museum- our first event there. Capture the spirit of drama of the French Revolution with us. Join us for a unique evening of drawing and history. View the exhibition ‘Revolution under a king’ and draw life models posing in theatrical tableaux. Create your own illustrations from these key moments in history.
Tickets and info via UCL Art Museum here £15
We love collaborating with museums and galleries, exploring and responding to their unique and challenging collections. If you know of a special place that you think we should visit, let us know? We still have our dreams set on Natural History Museum one day (all those bones!) but we love discovering new smaller and wonderfully strange little museums too.
2016
MAY
4 MAY / TATTOO LONDON / Museum of London
7 MAY / PRINTS OF DARKNESS: LINO PRINTING / The Book Club, Shoreditch
14 MAY / RA LATE: VENETIAN MAGIC feat Virgin Xtravaganzah / Royal Academy SOLD OUT
20 MAY / ART MACABRE & SARAH LUCAS / Sir John Soane’s Museum SOLD OUT
We’ll have pearly skeleton faced queer queens at our event on 21 May
21 MAY / PEARLY KINGS & QUEENS: COCKNEY REBELS / The Book Club, Shoreditch
22 MAY / RA FRIENDS EVENT: Giorgione’s Women / Royal Academy
HRP (c) Tower of London once had beasts including lions and tigers
24 MAY / DRAWN AT THE TOWER WITH ART MACABRE: ROYAL BEASTS / Tower of London
31 MAY / REVOLUTIONARY DEATHS: French Revolution / UCL Art Museum
JUNE
4 JUNE / BOTTICELLI BEAUTIES / The Book Club
7 JUNE / THE DRAWING JUKEBOX / Looking Glass Cocktail Club
13 JUNE / COLOURDROME: ORANGE / Paper Dress Vintage, Hackney
14 JUNE / CAIUS MAY BALL- PRIVATE EVENT
JULY
2 JULY / THE BOOK CLUB, 2-4PM
2 JULY / A CURIOUS INVITATION BALL @ MASONIC TEMPLE. Part of EAST LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
9 JULY / SHUFFLE FESTIVAL: DRAWN AT DAWN / Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
17 JULY / CITADEL FESTIVAL: DRAWING JUKEBOX / Victoria Park, East London
AUG
4-7 AUG / WILDERNESS FESTIVAL with A Curious Invitation Natural History Tent
Draw with us at the Tower!
Art Macabre are delighted to be able to announce a new collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces, creating together a series of after-hours drawing events at the Tower of London. Ahead of monthly events, launching in Spring 2016, we’d like to invite you to part of a preview event, introducing the Drawn at the Tower tutoring team and the experience of drawing after-hours at this unique, historical landmark site.
Drawn at the Tower with Art Macabre
PREVIEW EVENT: Rebel Queens and Killer Kings
Tuesday 24 November 2015, 6.30-9pm
@ Tower of London
Tickets £20 (includes drawing materials, paper and a drink). Tickets purchased here.
Unlock your drawing potential and discover the scandalous romances and rebellions of medieval monarchs at this after-hours drawing event at the Tower of London. Inspired by Isabella the “She-wolf of France”, and her tyrannical father-in-law Edward I, create your own portraits in the unique and dramatically lit Medieval Palace with tutors Jake Spicer and Sue Dray.
From an enthusiastic newbie to a seasoned artist, Drawn at the Tower is designed for adults (18+) of all levels and abilities. Tutoring will be available.
About DRAWN AT THE TOWER
Drawn at Tower is a new creative collaboration between Historic Royal Palaces and Art Macabre, inviting participantsto use drawing to explore stories from the Tower of London’s remarkable 1,000 year history. From royals and rogues to ravens and rituals, each event will illuminate the Tower’s dark past. Drawn at the Tower is directed and designed by Art Macabre, and delivered by a team of tutors and artists including Jake Spicer,Sue Dray and Lozzy Bones, to create an immersive experience. Be among the first to experience this unique after-hours drawing series at the Tower of London that will run regularly from spring 2016.
About Art Macabre
Art Macabre inject a lethal dose of theatricality and curiosity into drawing. Directed by Nikki Shaill, Art Macabre specialise in creating immersive drawing events in unique spaces that bring together elements of narrative, performance, music and theatrical themes. Since 2010, thousands of participants have enjoyed drawing from both the imagination and observation.
Accessibility
Please note access to the Tower of London site will be restricted to a different part of the Tower for each event, and does not include access to the Crown Jewels or whole site. This event involves using steps around the historic site and is unfortunately not suitable for wheelchair users or for people with limited mobility. Please note that chairs are not provided to sit on during this event. If you have particular seating or access requirements, please contact 0844 482 7777 or learning.info@hrp.org.uk
We can hardly believe it ourselves, but this October 31st 2015 we will mark five whole years of macabre mark making! Yes, Art Macabre Death Drawing salons are proud to celebrate that we’ve been running our events for 5 years now.
To celebrate this occasion, we’ll be:
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS ON ALL OF THESE VERY SOON!
So sad that it is the final day of the Summer School. It has been such a privilege to spend this time focusing on my drawing, developing my creativity, visiting AMAZING places and hanging out with some really brilliant people. For our final day we were installed in the upstairs room of the Star by Hackney Downs pub. It was a lovely relaxed end to the week, we chatted, made artwork and had a few drinks.
Today was all about developing the drawings we had created during our week. Nikki had brought loads of amazing material including lino and ink, fabrics and thread, paints, pens and loads of skull pictures for collages. I work a lot with textiles and embroidery so was instantly drawn to the fabrics but also really wanted to do some lino printing. I adore printing and embroidery takes ages, so I decided lino was the way to go.
I looked through all of my drawings. The ones I was most pleased with came from Bart’s Pathology Museum and the Grant Museum. These were the skulls that I had a bit more time to draw. I love these drawings, but I wasn’t sure the detail and texture captured would work as well in a lino print. I decided to go for something simpler and bolder. I was still really drawn to the creepy double baby head that I drew at Viktor Wynd’s Cabinet of Wonders, so decided to revisit that.
It was really fun to have free reign to choose whatever materials we wanted to work with. Lots of people choose to work with the lino, but there were also drawings, painting and mixed media pieces being created as well. There was a fantastic creative buzz, with everyone chatting about the work they had created during the week and planning for the exhibition that we will be putting on in the autumn!
We had a bit of a break halfway through the day and were very lucky to have the brilliant Joanna Shears come and speak to us. As well as being a taxidermy artist, Joanna runs a website talking about death. She was so inspiring and spoke to us about being death positive, planning a funeral that is a celebration and meaningful (as well as how to do it without encoring huge costs). She is very passionate about eco burials and DIY funerals. She is currently making patchwork shrouds from vintage fabrics. We actually had a demo of how to shroud a body, with Nikki volunteering to be the corpse!
I found Joanna’s talk so interesting. I have been interested in funeral rituals for a long time but had only just found out about the concept of natural burials. Inspired by Joanna I have been doing a bit more research and started to plan for what I would want when I am gone. She encouraged us to write a plan so that our family were sure about what we would what. I found her death positive attitude really inspirational – I think it is really important that we are able to talk about death openly. After all, without death we would have no life. It is something we will all face and it makes no sense that it is such a taboo.
I am so sad that the Summer School week has come to and end, but there are some very exciting plans ahead. We have been talking about an exhibition, so I have taken away the prints I have done and are going to be developing them further over the next few weeks.
It really has been an amazing experience to dedicate this time to my own creative practice. It has made me realise how much I have missed drawing and how it should form an important part of my work as an artist. I have learnt to look at things better, and loved learning about some fascinating objects by really studying them closely. I am also really happy with the progress I made, from my first skull sketch at Victor Wynd’s to my deer skull at the Grant museum yesterday. It’s also been brilliant to spend time with people who don’t think you are weird for loving skulls and skeletons! I have promised myself that I must keep drawing, and am already looking forward to another Art Macabre Summer School next year.
ART MACABRE DRAWING SALONS: ARCHIVE - NEW SITE at WWW.ARTMACABRE.CO.UK 