Drawn from Life unites the figurative works of Nic Plowman and Sam Eyles, offering an exploration of the human form through expressive and expanded drawing practices.
Through their unique approaches, the artists delve into themes of identity, connection, and transformation, capturing the emotional, physical, and spiritual essence of the figure. This two-person exhibition reveals the raw beauty and vulnerability of figure drawing, celebrating the shared and individual perspectives of two accomplished artists in dialogue.
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The Artists
Sam Eyles
Sam Eyles is a Meanjin (Brisbane)-based artist working primarily in painting and drawing. His drawing practice is rooted in the immediacy and energy of life drawing, using gestural blind contour techniques to capture the essence of the human form. Layering multiple poses on a single surface, Eyles intuitively employs charcoal, water-soluble pastel, pencil, erasers, and chalk pastel to create dynamic compositions of abstract lines and textures. Both meditative and instinctual, his process transforms drawing into an act of presence, where chaos evolves into calm. Through layered marks and movement, Eyles crafts reflective spaces—moments of stillness within the storm—that invite viewers to pause, connect, and engage on a transcendent level, evoking a sense of interconnectedness and interdependency. His work harmonises form and abstraction, offering a sense of peace and contemplation.
Nic Plowman
Nic Plowman’s work is rich with insight, capturing time, memory, and lived experience with both intimacy and visceral energy. Renowned for both traditional and experimental drawing, his practice also spans painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Born with congenital heart disease into a strong matriarchal family, Nic’s challenging experiences—including multiple open-heart surgeries, a six-meter fall, and a recent cancer battle—inspire his empathetic approach to themes of fear, triumph, and vulnerability. Nic has received numerous accolades including finalist positions in the Dobell Drawing Prize (2023) and The Kedumba Drawing Award (2023).
Vessel for Life
Essay by Amanda Solomons
Figurative drawing is a practice as old as humanity itself, intrinsically linked to us as it mirrors our vessel for life. Since ancient times, markings have captured resemblances of figures, and throughout history, we have used them as a way to understand our bodies.
In studios across the world, eyes flit between the paper to the model as a likeness is created. Since the 1500s, life drawing specifically, has had a foothold in Western art academia, traditionally requiring artists to detach themselves from the person in front of them to focus solely on form, shadow, and line.
During the Renaissance, artists studied anatomy. Seeking to understand what lay beneath the skin, this period both celebrated and betrayed the human body. Figures were composed of the 'best' limbs, curves, and angles – Frankensteins of perfection – a practice that continued for centuries.
The Bauhaus movement challenged this idealised approach, shifting focus from anatomical perfection to a study of the body's dynamism. Their artists abstracted movement and form into geometric shapes at its base—an approach to life drawing still foundational today.
All this to say, life drawing has been strangely detached from the people it is drawn from. By reducing bodies to lines, humanity itself has often been melded into anonymity. There is richness in our being that the cannon has sometimes missed, the life that radiates from our bodies. Naked and vulnerable, our bodies carry our stories through our physical form, expression, blemishes, scars, and injuries. We can see slivers of identities through adornment, whether it be a tattoo or a haircut.
Contemporary drawers Nic Plowman and Sam Eyles go against the norm as they capture the emotional, physical, and spiritual essence of the figure. Themes of identity, connection, and transformation flow through both artists’ work, revealing raw beauty and vulnerability.
Eyles and Plowman give power back to their subjects through their individual and vastly different expanded drawing techniques with both embracing ambiguity, Eyles works at a rapid pace, layering different angles of a figure, creating a depth of colour and vibration that echoes the body’s pulse. Plowman chooses not to pose models, preferring them to find how they want their bodies to sit and capture them as they are.
While life drawing itself can be viewed as a method to fine-tune skill, Plowman and Eyles turn it from pages of practice into finished pieces with a nuanced reflection of the body as a whole – physical and emotional.
© Amanda Solomons, 2025
