Arts Theatre, London, 22 February 2023

After taking a six-week break from life modelling – much of it six thousand miles from home, opting to use my hard-earned income for a holiday rather than sky-high winter fuel bills – I resumed with the first of three bookings in seven days for City Academy at Arts Theatre.

I would be posing for three different courses – ‘Painting the Figure’, ‘Portrait Drawing’ and ‘Portrait Painting’ – led by three different tutors, all of whom I’d worked with in the past. This evening’s ‘Painting the Figure’ session was led by Lawrence F Crane. We started with warm-up drawings: six poses of 2 minutes each.

For the remainder of our two-and-a-half hours I sat in a single pose based loosely on the 1923 painting ‘Portrait of Olga Picasso‘ by Pablo Picasso. My white sheet was beneath me, blue fabric round my neck, black velvet across the adjacent table, and a red vase beside me. Six artists at easels. We began.

Nobody painted the red vase. I guess they had their work cut out sufficiently with me. My own effort wasn’t too strenuous. Only the final half-hour got a little achy. I allowed myself a one-and-only stretch before these closing moments, albeit without standing, and that was enough. I was back as a model. Bring on the next challenge!