Art in the Village, London, 26 November 2023

Maybe I’m kidding myself, but I don’t feel I post on social media for self-promotion. To me, when I post about my life modelling work it’s simply sharing what I love to do and sending out positivity to the groups and artists for whom I work. Sometimes, however, it earns me a new job. As in this case, when Cleo of Art in the Village reached out.

Evidently my Instagram account gave the right Egon Schiele vibes, so I was kindly invited to pose for end-of-month life drawing at The Birchwood Centre, Muswell Hill. The warmth of Cleo’s welcome more than made up for the centre’s under-performing radiators. I felt care and appreciation even before I started my opening ‘guru’ poses.

Posing in the round, I was asked for one 5-minute seated guru pose then three more variations turning 90° for 2 minutes each time. Cleo provided advice to artists before, during and after every change, with discussion, engagement and sharing throughout. Clearly I had entered a close, characterful community. Next: the long pose.

To support the planned tuition, I was asked specifically to lay down for the long pose. No problem! But more than that, to lay as if collapsed like a murder victim, with head lolling down to the floor from the cushions beneath me. I slumped into position with a few Schiele-esque angles in my limbs, and then remained in situ for 40 minutes.

I was offered a break after we’d gone halfway but as this pose was at the shorter end of the long pose scale, I gallantly declined. Aside from anything else, intuition told me that returning to the exact same position could be a bit of a palaver. So I continued to lay back and think of England… or muse on Muswell Hill, at least.

At the end of the session, everybody shared their drawings by placing them upon the floor, and everyone was invited to speak about one they really liked. Even me, but as I’m fickle I couldn’t help choosing four or five. Cleo made sure nobody missed getting their fair share of praise, and hopefully all departed feeling happy. Certainly I did.