The Beehive, London, 18 January 2018
Here was a special occasion. To help celebrate four years of Tottenham Art Classes, Esther and I were booked to model for an evening of life drawing at The Beehive pub. Furthermore, the ticket price for artists was set at just £4, which would cover entrance and a free slice of exquisite birthday cake. This was an inspired move as it looked like almost 40 artists turned up. Somehow they were all accommodated as we opened the session with four solo poses of 2-minutes each, swapping sides with each change.
After posing apart, we came together for poses of 10-minutes, 15 and 20-minutes that took us to a break. We were in the round, which was fine, but unfortunately there was a pillar supporting the ceiling in the same space. It meant that if we cuddled too close together, there would be artists on the far side of the column who would not be able to view either of us. Frustratingly therefore, all our connections had to be at arms’ length, and the good people of Tottenham were denied our more intimate poses.
After cake and some wine, we resumed the second half with two 15-minute poses and one of 10-minutes, taking us to our finish at 9pm. It was wonderful to see such a great crowd had come along to this celebratory event. For relaxed untutored groups like this that can make the economics viable, it’s certainly best to have lower ticket prices and more people present, rather than higher prices but low numbers. Long may Tottenham Art Classes continue making it work in north London.
Birthday cake by Prestige Patisserie – photo © Tottenham Art Classes
steve ritter 