The Dellow Centre, London, 4 February 2018

“Life drawing” said the hand-written sign on a small A-frame board, its arrow pointing to The Dellow Centre. This was new! In the art room, I found a wooden platform piled with sheets and pillows upon which I would pose. This was also new! And instead of a few chairs and fewer easels, there were now dozens of chairs arranged in a broad oval with easels standing close behind. This too was new! What was going on?

Amidst all the change, at least Tim – the organiser of Life drawing in Aldgate and Shoreditch – was a familiar presence. Whilst I prepared to pose, he greeted arrivals; starting with about 8 people, then a group of 6 more arrived, then another group, then another. Not individuals… groups! Such a transformation for this session. I had rarely known it to have more than a dozen artists previously, yet today there were thirty.

Pose times would be different: 20-minutes, 20-minutes and 25-minutes took us to the interval, with Tim suggesting a clockwise rotation of 120º each time starting off facing the back wall. After tea and biscuits we ended with poses of 20 and 25-minutes. I still had creative discretion to decide each pose, so I used the fresh energy in the room to ignite new tensions within old favourites. Tim, meanwhile, reinvigorated his tuition.

Among the ocean of young newcomers, it was nice to see a few regulars. I wondered if they might have preferred bygone times of more space and greater liberty to spread out. Hopefully they too will feel renewed momentum, and be duly inspired. Personally, I thought it was a very healthy development from which some excellent artworks were the result. Fingers-crossed it will be sustained.