Bridge House, London, 3 October 2016

Life modelling is good for you! At least that’s the conclusion I reached after this 2-hour session at the end of a day in which I had been sorely afflicted by the common cold. It seemed like I couldn’t last two minutes without blowing my nose that afternoon. Upon arriving at Bridge House in Penge, I immediately self-medicated with a large red wine then checked-in for my evening’s work at Anerley and Penge Life Drawing.

I exchanged warm, contactless greetings with group organiser, Tatiana and chatted at what I considered to be a safe distance for her. Meanwhile the room was filling up with more artists than I’d ever seen here before – including a high proportion of newcomers. They would not want their first experience of life art to be with a sickly lethargic model. Luckily, this was a short pose session so a degree of dynamism was assured.

Short poses, it seems, are the perfect cold cure. There’s no time to be self-indulgently snotty when every moment calls for energetic stillness and focus. My only concession to symptoms was a frequent tilting-back of the head. Three poses of 2-minutes, four of 5-minutes and three of 10-minutes filled the first half, with three of 15-minutes to finish. Rather than socialise afterwards, I left with my germs… but I felt very much better.