The Prince Regent, Herne Hill, 13 March 2019

I’m wondering if you guys would be up for modelling in bright clothing or partly clothed this Wednesday – we could have it as a spring theme – greens yellows if you had any interesting stuff or just something that’s quite sculptural / colourful when worn.

Such was the request Esther and I received from Lisa of SketchPad Drawing on the Monday before our Wednesday booking. Lisa does like a dose of colour and costume from time to time, so that’s exactly what we gave her…

I sported the long orange and leopard-pattern dress – a Monsterlune creation – that I’d worn for Esther’s performance of Girl in Suitcase last year, plus a Venetian-style bird mask and Esther’s shimmery blue wings. Esther herself wore high-heeled boots, green leggings, a red string dress and a radiant sun-pattern top. I think this delivered on the terms of our brief. Opening in separate rooms upstairs at The Prince Regent, we proceeded to alternate with each change of pose during the first half.

Lisa called the changes: a 5-minute pose to begin with, then another 5-minutes, then another 5-minutes, 15-minutes followed, 15-minutes again, and one more 15-minutes. Poses of this length should be a doddle, but when one is wearing wings that insist on being held at arms length, plus a figure-hugging dress down to the ankles, the choice of posture is greatly limited. Swathed in vibrancy and fabulousness, however, it didn’t prevent us inspiring some wonderful artworks.

After a break Esther reclaimed her wings and – at Lisa’s behest – I borrowed Esther’s patchwork dressing gown. We sat back to back in the doorway between rooms for our final pose of 40-minutes… which is when it all started going wrong for me. As I leaned back I’d used my right hand to hold up a fan instead of allowing it to relieve my back’s muscles by bearing some of my bodyweight. A long period of pain followed – the cost of showing-off. It took me a good few minutes to recover. Loved the drawings though!