The Conservatoire, Blackheath, 24 September 2018

It is at least heart-warming, if not entirely room-warming, to enter a life drawing studio and find a single fan heater already purring at the heart of the space. Temperatures in London had plunged over the past three days, so this gesture by The Conservatoire was appreciated. In due course a second heater was switched on, then at 7:30pm we warmed-up properly with opening poses of 1-minute, 1, 1, 5 and 10-minutes.

So to our 2-hour pose. “Are you feeling energetic?“, asked tutor Victoria Rance when she arrived, “We haven’t had a long standing pose yet this term.” It is entirely possible that enthusiasm wasn’t etched vividly across my face; duly the idea evolved to see me perching upright on a high stool instead. I didn’t feel too guilty as I had volunteered the last term’s only long standing pose during my previous visit. I made my perch…

Preliminary study in a notebook.

Quick end-of-evening sketch from the rear.

Rest breaks took the actual pose time below 2-hours but I was still sitting motionless from 8:05 to 8:45, 9:05 to 9:30, and 9:35 to 9:55. It was far from the least comfortable position I have sustained and whilst I was never quite bathed in heat, the temperature remained satisfactory. How gladdening at the end to see so many artists on form and working with colour. They should all be well pleased with a good evening’s work.