Barbican Art Room, London, 8 June 2024

Barbican Art Society gathers for life drawing at Barbican Art Room deep in the belly of London’s Barbican Estate – a dense, sprawling multi-level nest of brutalist blocks, terraces and towers, highwalks, lower paths, ups, downs, lines, arrows and all things discombobulating for uninitiated. With an early start and detailed directions, however, its inner sanctum was miraculously attained…

“Take the escalator … entrance to … up to … along the highwalk in between … come to a bridge … on to … follow the painted yellow line … left under … then right on to … few yards down …. go through gate … down one level … sign at the top…” 😳 !!!

The welcome arrival of art tutor Mark Lovelace reassured me I was in the right place and safe hands. The art room, unlike its entombing complex, is small but very human with all the trappings of a well-used, much-loved community resource. There was just enough space for me to stow my bicycle – more of which later – in the farthest corner away from artists, easels and my own little pose space.

It was still only 10:15am when we got underway with a standing pose of 15 minutes. I followed this with five 2-minute poses and a brace of 5-minute poses, before finishing the first half with a single 20-minute pose. After tea and shortbread, two further poses of 20 minutes concluded the session. I absorded Mark’s clever tuition throughout. For example, good with lines but struggle with shading? Try cross-hatching. Inspired!

With the session done, I wheeled my bike from the art room to the Barbican Centre where I relaxed for an hour. Regular browsers of this blog will know that any time my bike makes an appearance it can mean only one thing: a World Naked Bike Ride is happening. And so it was. As the time ticked past 1:30pm, I began the slow meander towards my next destination: the 2024 London Naked Bike Ride start at Tower Hill…