47/49 Tanner Street, London, 6 February 2019

On entering 47/49 Tanner Street – home of Tanner Street Life Drawing – it was as though my glasses had steamed over. I could vaguely make out people bustling about the ground floor area but they didn’t seem to be artists. Eventually I twigged they were clearing up after a fashion photoshoot… and they had been using a smoke machine.

When the mists had cleared and the fashionistas departed, I noticed what appeared to be a pigeon perched on a radiator at the far wall. I wasn’t sure it was even real but as I got nearer, it suddenly perked up. The venue manager said they’d been trying to catch it all day but with no luck. With our session ready to start, we agreed just to leave it.

I began with four poses of 5-minutes each, then went with 10-minutes and 15-minutes taking us to our break. After making a mug of tea and taking a few dark chocolate thin digestives, I turned my attention back to the pigeon. Now barefoot, I was able to creep stealthy behind it, and slowly, slowly, slowly… quickly snatch it with both hands.

The pigeon didn’t seem flustered at all. If anything, it was perhaps inwardly peeved at being grabbed from its warm perch and cast into the chill night air. After scrubbing my hands thoroughly, I rounded off my evening’s modelling duty with a needlessly painful 50-minute seated pose. Nice shape, but an ill-considered dangling leg. It happens.