Shine, London, 14 August 2019

Even an anomalously wet evening couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this booking at Shine enterprise space – a workspace, gallery, marketplace and coffee shop all rolled into one. Life Draw Shine is a relatively new life drawing group here; and I do love the anticipation, novelty and immersion of first-time modelling at a fresh venue.

I was surprised to find it such a large and light space – perfect for life drawing. I would be posing with my back to shuttered windows and could make use of a sofa or stools. Artists stood at easels or sat at tables in a quarter arc around me. There was room for them to move about to find new vantage points if they so wished, and two or three did.

Artist and group organiser, Ruth Pickard called the pose lengths, starting at 1-minute and increasing through 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 20-minutes up to a break. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity to timings favoured by The Moon and Nude groups, and later we realised Ruth had indeed drawn me at one of their sessions many, erm, moons ago.

Ruth wasn’t the only one to have drawn me before. An unexpected bonus was seeing experienced artist and nice guy, Jaideep Chakrabarti, arrive shortly after I did. Neither of us expected to find the other here – we were both newcomers to Shine – but I think we settled in pretty well. To start the second half I stood for 20-minutes with arms out.

I contemplated ending the session perched upon an uncompromising metal stool, but the lure of a soft sofa proved too much. I sat upright with my left forearm resting upon my left knee for 30-minutes, satisfied I’d made the correct choice. It was an enjoyable evening in an ideal space with friendly people; I hope we can do it again some time.