Village Community Hall, Tunbridge Wells, 12 April 2025 – part 2

19 Apr 2025

Just half an hour separates the Tunbridge Wells Life Drawing session for short and medium-length poses (part 1), and this long-pose session (part 2). Roughly a third of that time is spent in shared admiration of the artworks created during the first session but I still had minutes enough for a sandwich and crisps before resuming work.

Only a couple of artists stayed to take part in both sessions. As a general rule across most groups, there’s consistently more take-up for sessions with shorter poses. Even so, we were pleasantly surprised to see a higher than expected number of artists join us for this long-pose study.

We started with two 5-minute warm-up poses; both standing. I then took all the time I required for fidgeting into a seated pose that could be sustained for 90 minutes – two halves of 45 minutes separated by a 15-minute break for tea and biscuits – without it becoming a hideous exercise in the endurance of pain, cramp and/or numbness.

Warm spring sunshine brightened the whole day to an extent that not only did we not need heaters but artists even requested windows and doors be opened to relieve the stuffiness. The trade-off was feeling occasional chilly breezes at my back, but overall: what a contrast to the horribly cold modelling conditions of just a month before!

My pre-pose fidgeting proved worthwhile as I reached the finish without experiencing any physical discomfort or needing an unscheduled stretch-break. It had been a long day but a lovely day. I had been well looked-after, enjoyed the work, met nice people, and felt good. Now all that remained was a two-and-a-half hour journey home… 🙂