Mall Galleries, London, 8 December 2017

Last Friday evening was Christmas party time for Hesketh Hubbard Art Society. The regulars have been obliged to wait two years for this annual event, as last December it was cancelled in favour of a late-arranged visit by Prince Charles. No Royal rigmarole in 2017, happily, so the usual format could proceed: life drawing for the first hour, then buffet snacks, wine and festive mingling thereafter. As per the last party, Esther and I were booked to provide two 30-minute poses.

When our modelling was done, Esther wisely made haste to the buffet while I took too long checking out the artworks and thus had to wait an hour for the queue to diminish. It meant I had plenty of time to catch up with the artists and some of the other models who’d posed at this session – including our friend Tanja on long poses, and the lovely Emma and Tim on portraits. Hesketh Hubbard president, Simon had quite thoughtfully invited a few other models to join the socialising, so more chatter and selfies ensued.

Me and Simon, managing a peep across Valentina and Mary into Tiziana’s selfie.

Our duo poses at the party in 2015 was my first time modelling at Mall Galleries. I’ve been blessed to receive many bookings here since, and already have two dates in the diary for next year. From a model’s perspective, the format is not necessarily the most comfortable in London, but there’s a cheerful social scene at its core, within which I’ve enjoyed meeting some fine characters – nice people. So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Hesketh Hubbard Art Society! I look forward to seeing you again in 2018.