The Prince Regent, Herne Hill, 4 October 2017

It had been ages. My last life modelling job was four weeks ago so I felt ridiculously rusty. For much of the intervening period I’d been away travelling with Esther, but now we were back for the start of autumn term and would be working together this evening at The Prince Regent. Inspiration and application were assured. With wine glasses in hand we ascended to the first-floor function room and were greeted warmly by Lisa, the ever-charming organiser of SketchPad Drawing.

For the first half of our session we would share the pose space but be connected only by fabric and proximity, not by physical contact. We worked upon two levels of tables, and on the floor. Lisa loosely shaped each tableau, within which we then selected our individual poses: three of 10-minutes, plus two of 15-minutes. I was naked throughout while at Lisa’s request, Esther remained in the dress she’d bought the week before at Kariakoo street market in Dar es Salaam. Some green material was our only prop.

After a break, we settled down for one single pose of 40-minutes. Esther removed her patterned dress but kept her multicoloured stripey socks with toes. Together we were indulged to get intertwined whilst maintaining interesting perspectives for artists on all sides of us in the round. It was wonderful to have this possibility rather than posing in separate rooms (the usual format here) but also sad because it meant artist numbers were slightly down. Hopefully there will be a full house when we return on 8 November.