The Birds, Leytonstone, 28 June 2023

The last time I modelled at The Birds for Leytonstone Life Drawing it was meant to be day one of a two-day booking over consecutive days, but that night the group was told it couldn’t have the venue for day two. Shortly after, all sessions ceased. Imagine my surprise then – and joy – to find Leytonstone Life Drawing’s bird was a phoenix!

Artwork by Olga Szynkarczuk.

Having risen from ashes to welcome artists back under its wings, the circumstance of this group inviting my own return was what I now call my ‘responsible adult‘ bookings. Post-COVID London is awash with sexy youthful models and groups embracing their mainstream or alt-marketability; but sometimes the imperative is a responsible adult.

Artwork by Olga Szynkarczuk.

On this occasion, group organiser Jenny was away on holiday and had left two of her reliable, regular artists in charge. I think she wanted to make sure they had a reliable, regular model, so I got the call. It’s a compliment, and as I’ve never been mainstream sexy, nor alt-sexy, nor even youthful in many living memories, I’m very grateful for it!

Artwork by Olga Szynkarczuk.

We opened with three 1-minute poses, followed by three of 3 minutes each, then two poses of 5 minutes, one of 15 minutes and a 10-minute pose taking us to an interval. After our break we concluded the session with a single pose of 40 minutes. It was so nice to be back. Everything went superbly well… the only spark missing was Jenny.

In fairness to Jenny she doesn’t only book me as a responsible adult. I have a couple more bookings here later in the year just for the sheer diversity of me. But I reckon at least half a dozen groups now have booked me when stand-ins were due to run their sessions and they wanted a responsible adult to model. I never foresaw that niche!

Artwork by Olga Szynkarczuk.

p.s. Olga’s astounding drawing above is a composite of my 15-minute and 40-minute poses. Check out what she did with it next on her Instagram reel.