West Wickham Arts, Hayes, 16 September 2019

West Wickham Arts Association holds life drawing sessions at Hayes Free Church way down in south-east London, getting towards Kent. It’s a long way from my regular territory, but I warmed to an invitation from one of the association’s members who had seen me modelling several times at Mall Galleries, so decided to take the plunge.

Horrendous railway disruption magically worked in my favour so I got to Hayes earlier than expected. This meant I found myself loitering outside the church hall with crowds of parents waiting to collect their kids from whichever event preceded the life drawing. It seemed to take ages for them to disperse so I suspect we started a little late.

I would be posing in the round for nigh on a dozen association artists – all friendly and welcoming folk. We opened with short dynamic poses: 5-minutes standing followed by 10-minutes down on one knee with my left arm outstretched. Next I was upright again, this time for 25-minutes, taking us to a break. Tea and Bourbons were served.

I’m always concerned to come up with a few poses that are either wholly original or at least appreciable variations when I return to venues that have booked me many times in the past – artists are apt to grumble about models who keep repeating poses. Here, however, I was new to almost everyone so I relaxed into a couple of old favourites.

A 45-minute seated pose took me to the finish, comfortable save for a slight chill after the heater cut out prematurely. Nonetheless, I gladly agreed when asked if I would be willing to return. All that remained was to tackle the trains home – still badly disrupted but, with a nice bag of chips, I simply waited phlegmatically for whatever would be…