From Drawing in the Landscape to Drawing from Memory

Abstract

Teaching drawing to new architecture students with their eagerness to learn quickly, requires us to look back to the past in order to be able to move forward in teaching the present. As experienced teachers, we need to question how we teach. Beginners are always the same age, but we teachers are one year older each academic year. The aim of this paper is to provide answers for students and teachers as we seek a shared space where we can all learn – some for the first time and others once again. Drawing outside, away from the classrooms, changes the locus of our everyday learning. We move away from academia and at the same time become aware of new sensations, quite different to those experienced in formal settings. Discomfort, wind, cold or heat, the sun on our skin, all enliven our senses and prepare us all on equal terms for the task of drawing. Teacher and pupil are less distant, our heads and hands are at the same height. The experience gained from several days drawing outdoors allows us to embark on a new learning from memory based on what we have learned.