Mall Galleries, London, 12 October 2018

I was pondering the first of my four 30-minute poses for this evening at Mall Galleries when a regular of Hesketh Hubbard Art Society asked me, “Do you know Nijinsky?” Presuming she didn’t mean the racehorse, I replied in the affirmative and together we consulted Google for a specific pose of his that she had in mind. Fortunately it wasn’t a classical ballet pose, and even more helpfully I was asked to flatten it in the style of Assyrian sculpture reliefs she’d seen in the British Museum. Well, why not…

After this opening half-hour upright with knees slightly bent, one palm on my stomach, the other extended horizontally to my left, with face in profile, I continued with a sitting pose of more familiar stamp; one knee raised, one arm resting across it – I have been utilising variations of this one quite regularly in recent sessions. A fifteen minute break for tea and dark chocolate digestives restored me to my feet and kept me there for the start of the second half, this time in a rather more dynamic standing pose.

Finally a nice lie down. Well, not absolutely deliciously sumptuously nice as I’d put a twist in my torso and kept an arm, hand and index finger raised for vertical variety. My eyes were closed but there was little chance of sleep. Upon reanimating at the end, it was a pleasure to see such a range of materials had been used to capture my poses: fine pen and pencil work, scratchy charcoal, pastels both pale and vibrant, plus some bright splashes of watercolour. Warming feedback too. Lovely folk.