Morley College, London, 22 June 2016

I’d been booked again for successive Wednesday sessions at Morley College, and this one was part two of two. The previous week I started off with short poses, then commenced a long pose that I would resume this evening. We changed it a little this time around, beginning with two poses of 15-minutes rather than three of 10-minutes; angles and Schiele-esque positioning were again the desired qualities.

For the second pose I adopted arm positions direct from one of Schiele’s works but it may not have been noted. More directly in our collective awareness was the college’s head of department who was present with us to ‘assess’ the group’s tutor, Gillian. I’ve never heard the artists – all mature – express anything other than full appreciation for Gillian’s approach, but these are routine rituals that beset our modern institutions.

After the warm-ups, we got the furniture and me as close as we could to the positions of last week’s long pose, whilst the artists did likewise with their easels and materials. Some resumed works, others started afresh, but all were attentive to their method and composition. I sat for about 90 minutes, with a coffee break and a couple of stretches. As ever, I found the finished works diverse and strong. Hope to be back in autumn.