The Victoria Stakes, London, 6 August 2018

In the comfortable warmth of yet another fine summer’s evening, Esther and I ambled down through Alexandra Park and infiltrated The Victoria Stakes in Muswell Hill at ten to seven. This was my second time life modelling here for The Moon and Nude, and my first with Esther drawing. Julia, the group’s organiser, welcomed us warmly. It seemed an age since we had last worked together, yet she remains every bit as kind and engaging. At 7pm, with a good-sized gathering of artists present, we began.

Pose times adhered to a familiar Moon and Nude format: 5-minutes, 4, 3, 2, 1-minute, then increasing to 10-minutes, 15-minutes and 20-minutes. I traversed the oval space offering various new poses and old favourites. As per my first visit, the broad upstairs windows remained entirely unshielded – Julia asked me if this was OK – but whereas last year our electric lighting on a dark autumn night had emblazoned me nude to the outside world, now the late brightness of August guarded our collective privacy.

At the break we all shared in sponge cakes that Julia had generously bought as it was special day for me. Afterwards, I settled down to a single long pose of 40-minutes that concluded a very pleasant session. Right now, whilst I blog these words – exactly one week later – Esther is back at The Victoria Stakes; this time as a life model, and also a photo model for a private project. Alas, disrupted plans mean I’m unable to draw her, so instead here’s a sketch I made at The Garrett Centre on 1 August…