cave, London, 18 October 2022

With its ever-evolving character as a vintage shop, workshop, art space, event space and meeting place, the only thing certain about the layout of cave in Pimlico is it will be interesting. When I arrived for this evening’s life drawing it was being prepared for an imminent new exhibition. I would be modelling in the farthest small gallery space.

Small the gallery may be, but it is accommodating. I would be posing with my back to one wall flanked by heaters, while chairs occupied every available centimetre around the other three. All seats had been filled by the time the last artist arrived, so they sat cross-legged on what remained of the floor.

Short poses were the order of the day. We began with three of 3 minutes, followed by three of 5 minutes. Two poses of 10 minutes each came next, and finally one pose of 15 minutes took us to a break. I then joined artists in returning to the main retail room of cave, where group organiser Jane provided complimentary Prosecco. Cheers!

A quick half-time glance at artworks created thus far revealed what I presumed would be the case: my proximity to the artists in such an intimate space meant very few had captured my full head-to-toe figure, especially when standing. This needed rectifying, so after the interval I decided to stick with only compact seated poses.

I resumed with legs crossed, back straight, and hands resting serenely on my knees. After 15 minutes, I opened up with right knee raised and right arm balanced across it for 20 minutes until the end. It had been a happy friendly session, to the extent I was conscious of having smiled naturally in pose almost throughout. Now that’s special.