LEWISTON – “Drawing is a way of communicating with the world, of listening to what the world has to say and answering back,” says author Peter Steinhart. In 2004, his book “The Undressed Art: Why We Draw” received national acclaim.

His essay was written for “The Figure Revealed II,” a new exhibit at the Lewiston-Auburn College’s Atrium Gallery, 51 Westminster St.

The show, which opens Sunday, Sept. 11, addresses the resurgence of figure-drawing groups, most of them meeting weekly for several hours with participants working individually and drawing from a live model.

Their weekly gatherings continue a tradition that began in Europe during the 15th century.

A writer who specializes in natural history and environmental affairs and is a former editor and columnist for Audubon magazine, Steinhart also has pursued drawing as an avocation.

He speaks of drawing groups as “deliciously democratic institutions, with professional artists working alongside wincing amateurs and 80-year-old matrons working alongside tattooed teenagers, all together searching for what makes us human.”

The discipline of drawing

Two years ago, the Atrium Art Gallery presented a statewide juried exhibition on work created in the environment of a life-drawing group. Its success led to “The Figure Revealed II,” which received entries this past spring from more than 25 drawing groups. DeWitt Hardy and Janet Conlon Manyan selected 88 works for the show from more than 300.

The longest running group in the state began in Ogunquit, thanks to the Hardy’s efforts 40 years ago. Now meeting in Saco, Hardy has continued his longtime commitment to figure drawing.

“When we began the first drawing group in 1963 at Chris Ritter’s studio in Ogunquit, we just wanted to get together in January to do something interesting. What kept it going was a convergence of two things: discipline and humanism,” Hardy said.

“It turned out that what everyone was missing in the art world, human presence and formal regimen could be found in regular drawing from life. That’s why these groups have continued,” he noted. “Friendship, of course, doesn’t hurt.”

“These small drawing groups exist around the state, somewhat in isolation. Since most of the work is not intended for exhibition but as practice, we have an opportunity to enter the private world of artist and model and to better understand the tradition they continue,” said exhibition organizer and gallery director Robyn Holman.

Scientist’s creativity

Retired research scientist Woody Stack, who has a watercolor in the exhibit, said, “I found my 45 years of research work in biochemistry and pharmacology to be very creative from a problem-solving point of view. Those same creative skills seemed so parallel in drawing that I took up drawing and painting as an extension of that creative outlet.”

Stack describes himself as self-taught and goes to drawing sessions at Round Top Center for the Arts in Damariscotta.

“We come into the studio,” said Steinhart, “especially to discover what is noble, humane and beautiful in ourselves and in each other. What transpires between artist and model is often surprisingly generous and compassionate. All this looking and thinking about each other in the end makes us look into our own hearts and think about who and what we are. And the resulting art can make us feel more compassionate, more humane and more alive.”

The Atrium Art Gallery is at Lewiston-Auburn College, 51 Westminster St. The exhibition continues through Oct. 22. Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m to 8 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. More information and directions to the gallery are available online at www.usm.maine.edu/lac or by calling 753-6500.

The show begins Sunday, Sept. 11, with a reception that is free and open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m.