Mall Galleries, London, 26 July 2019

Portrait modelling for Hesketh Hubbard Art Society at Mall Galleries entails sitting motionless on a chair for one whole hour, then taking a fifteen-minute timeout for tea and biscuits before resuming for a further whole hour to the session’s end. Patience, focus, wakefulness and a self-sufficient mind are needed. And a comfortable seat…

It seemed the comfortable seat wasn’t to be. I briefly scouted the gallery for cushions but, failing in my quest, fell back on my posterior resilience instead. Come the minute we were due to start, an artist kindly asked if I would like some padding but by then it was too late. I found my gaze point at fixed on it for the first period.

At the outset, it was the hard back that made its presence known to my vertebrae. By the last ten minutes, a numb bum was becoming an aching arse. In truth it wasn’t too bad, but a little softness would not have gone amiss. At least the lighting this evening, rigged for an exhibition of aviation art, was conducive for the creation of fine works.

Artwork by Dmitry Shaklanoff-von Seipt.

The second half matched the first for its evolution of time. I became distracted by one blowfly that kept harassing the artists, and I waited for the moment it would land upon my face. Mercifully it never happened. The seconds counted down, one after another, and eventually ran out. But I stuck around a while, loving what had been made.