Bridge House, London, 8 July 2019

To my great relief, this Monday night booking with Anerley and Penge Life Drawing was to be a short-pose session. Thirteen poses would be required, with times ranging from 2-minutes to 15-minutes. On my way to Bridge House I decided I would recycle my poses from the previous Monday at The Groucho Club – well, I hadn’t used them in Penge before so why not? What I’d failed to foresee was that one of the artists from the Groucho would be at this session too. Thank you and welcome, Curtis!

Curtis said he would be quite happy for me to reprise poses from the week before, but it didn’t seem fair. Not in their entirety anyway. I used a couple of them – kneeling with both arms angled down diagonally to my right, and standing with arms outstretched at waist level – but apart from that they were all made up in the moment. We started with three of 2-minutes, followed by four of 5-minutes, and ended the first half with three of 10-minutes. Energetic stuff; no need for a heater, even on this cooler evening.

Artwork by Tatiana Moressoni.

The second half’s effort was comprised of three 15-minute poses, then we were done. Group organiser Tatiana Moressoni encouraged all those present to spread a few of their artworks on the floor, and collectively we marvelled at some superb efforts. Best of all was the generous thanks given by so many of the artists present, with one chap even saying I was his favourite model to draw. Repeating those words here must look like terrible vanity, but truly I never imagine myself that well regarded. It’s very special.