The Conservatoire, Blackheath, 9 June 2025

15 Jun 2025

It’s beginning to feel like summer. Certainly the evening temperature was pleasant as we worked through our quick warm-up poses at The Conservatoire. I didn’t shirk my shape-making for these as tutor Victoria Rance had already suggested a most basic reclining pose as our primary focus for the session.

For two hours I was to lay horizontal, symmetrical, with legs together and arms at my side. It was almost identical to the versions I’d presented here at Victoria’s request in 2018 and 2021, except in the interests of originality I flipped my hands over so palms were facing upwards this time.

It’s a pose beset with tricky perspectives and proportions for artists to navigate. Even so, I always imagine it must look like I’m the most unashamedly lazy model; brazenly stealing my wages! True, it’s hardly a strenuous pose, but after two motionless hours with just one brief stretch of the arms, a weird anaesthetised delirium creeps in… 🙃