Mall Galleries, London, 8 May 2026

10 May 2026

At Hesketh Hubbard Art Society evenings in Mall Galleries, artists work from three models: one for ‘quick’ poses of 15 or 30 minutes (nude), one for a 2-hour ‘long’ pose (nude), and one for a 2-hour seated portrait pose (clothed). In any given year models on the society’s roster will tend to be booked once on each of these three platforms.

This evening it was my turn to be back on long-pose duty. In truth, I don’t think any of us especially relish the long pose. It’s an endurance exercise. I’m one of perhaps just four or five who occasionally volunteer to stand in pose. When I stood last August, it was horrendous. I already felt ill upon arrival. Even so, I was minded to try again.

It might seem odd but maybe because I did feel so out-of-sorts back then I was more motivated to banish that old ghost and get everything right this time. Duly I gave very careful consideration to all aspects: angles of feet, angles of legs, weight distribution, balance, positions of arms, flex of elbows, elevation of chin, direction of gaze…

Crucially, I brought with me a yoga mat of the type that folds rather than rolls. Folding this to triple thickness I made the perfect base for my feet; soft yet stable. And having done so, all that remained was the endurance part: an hour standing with only a brief shake of the arms to restore circulation, then a break, then an hour with two shakes.

Standing motionless with an arm slightly raised for almost the whole of two hours can never be entirely pain-free, but my attention to detail paid-off. This was infinitely more bearable than my last experience. I’ll file this one mentally (in every sense) as a good evening’s work. Ghost banished. An exorcism with lovely people.