What better way to end a fantastic year of nude modelling and artistic performance than with a life art Christmas pantomime? The idea was irresistible when it came to Art Macabre supremo Nikki, a.k.a. Raven Rouge, in October as we prepared for the Digital Dystopia event.
Nikki makes ideas happen. This one would be a macabre version of The Wizard of Oz; a cast was assembled very quickly. The Attic bar of the Hackney Picturehouse was secured as a venue, for one night only in the week before Christmas. And the plot, the script… well, that could be made up as we went along.
Thus we came together at the Attic on the evening of Monday 16 December. Chelsea would play a topless Dorothy; Georgie and Ava would be naked witches – wicked and good respectively; Nikki would be in rags as the scarecrow; I would be a full-frontal tin man; and Linsay would wear furry pants and socks as the cowardly lion.
Aaron was our make-up artist and photographer. It would not be an Art Macabre event without lashings of body paint. First Nikki and Aaron painted Georgie green from head to toe. Meanwhile, Linsay had wrapped insulating silver around my torso and forearms in advance of Nikki and Aaron joining her in dabbing silver paint all over my face, neck, shoulders and arms.
Knickers were changed, capes and gowns were fastened, bows were put in hair, face paint was applied to Nikki and Linsay, horns were affixed to witches and a silver-foiled funnel was chin-strapped to my head. Our stage was strewn with curious props.
They say never work with children or animals, so we did without Munchkins and used a canine skull to represent Toto.
We were ready.
At the appointed time, Nikki took to the stage and set the scene, opening the session with Chelsea and Georgie in a run of short poses. Ava, Linsay and I lurked backstage, just behind the entrance curtain, eagerly listening for Nikki’s narration between poses to hear whether we were about to be called.
The good witch Ava made her appearance midway through the first half, while Linsay and I were destined not to appear until after the short drinks break.
The second half opened with me posing solo for 10 minutes, standing upon two stools with my arms raised in a vaguely menacing manner. Nikki felt that the Art Macabre tin man had to be evil: he has no heart, therefore he is heartless.
Next Linsay joined me on stage for a cowering pose as I held a human skull towards her. After this I gained my heart (a silver cardboard cut-out with red ribbons attached, stuck to my chest) and Linsay gained her courage (the skull of Toto, whom she had apparently devoured).
We held standing poses with Chelsea’s Dorothy standing defiantly between us, her hands on her hips.
For the final two poses the full cast assembled on stage. An unexpected denouement was the wicked witch throttling Dorothy to death from behind – a two minute pose at the very end. Apparently Nikki simply whispered to Georgie: “Kill her!”
Well… this was Art Macabre after all.
Job done, we hammed it up backstage and on stage for cast photos. This wasn’t a big payday, just a good honest feel-good event to end the year.
It was my fourth time as a player in Art Macabre’s theatrical world of life and death drawing. There’s always lots of banter, laughter, originality, creativity and surprises. The artists get a very different kind of life drawing experience, as well as a fun night out. If 2014 brings more opportunities to work with Nikki, Linsay and the gang, it will surely be a very happy new year.
Last night was my penultimate life modelling session of the year. It was a sixth time this year in Bethnal Green for Adrian Dutton and, as ever at one of Adrian’s groups, the organisation and hospitality was second to none. The challenge for me, however, was managing my poses around the little Stanley fan heater on a cold, cold night.
The first pose was to be 10 minutes long. Fresh out of my day clothes I began with a twisted standing pose. Next, the dynamic tension of five quick-fire one-minute poses kept me warm, but during the subsequent standing and seated three-minute poses I sensed a little of my core body heat slowly starting to ebb away.
I remained standing for five and 10-minute poses. The was heater roasting my ankles but not too much hot air was rising. Come the longer 20-minute pose I was ready to be more self-indulgent. I lay down sideways-on to the fan, warming my body, with my right foot resting on my left inner thigh.
For the final 10-20 minute pose before the break I sat up on the same spot. Weirdly, this was the coldest I’d felt all night. I could sense the hairs on my arms standing on end, and was glad when time was called so I could fall on the complimentary cooked pizza, garlic bread, red wine and nibbles.
In the final half-hour session I sat on a table covered with cushions, my right elbow on my right knee, index finger pointing heavenwards. With the heater angled towards me on an adjacent chair, this was a serene way to see out the evening.
In spite of occasional chills, my only regret was that my camera battery died before I could get pictures of all the great artwork produced. Adrian’s groups always seem to attract genuine artistic talents. It’s been my pleasure to work with them this year.
A new venue for me, in new circumstances – this evening I life modelled at Waterloo Action Centre, close to Waterloo station, London. The small group was organised by Irene, whom I’d met earlier this year at the birthday party of fellow model, Ursula. And, indeed, Ursula was my co-model for this session.
During the first hour we worked through a sequence of poses ranging from seven to 15 minutes. Proffering plastic apples, we posed standing and facing; seated on chair and floor; standing either side of a pillar; switched positions seated on chair and floor.
Irene commented she was pleased with our feet close together in one of her drawings. With this inspiration, we arranged our first pose after the break with us both sitting on the floor but with our feet sole-to-sole up on a chair.
For the last half-hour we posed laying close together on our sides. There was a gap of Victorian standard decency in between us, but it created an optical illusion of intimacy for the artists. Overall it proved to be a lively session with models and artists bantering together throughout, and a dance class next door bopping away to Elvis.
Lots of fun. Here are some of the fruits:
Over recent years I’ve been accustomed to catching a magnificent cold in mid-autumn and then passing through winter relatively unscathed. Having already achieved the first part of the deal this year, it was somewhat annoying to wake up this morning with a tell-tale tightness at the back of my throat.
Even more annoying was it breaking into a rough agitation midway through the second of three 20-minute poses during a first hour’s life modelling back at Wanstead House. It’s hard to suppress the urgent need to cough. A couple of minor ahems served only to distract the artists.
Tea at half time proved a better remedy. The final 30-minute pose – laying on a table, propped on one elbow – was free of all but the usual discomfort when disproportionate body weight is directed through one shoulder. It was a mellow session, nonetheless.
48 hours from laying naked on the sun-drenched sands of Corralejo in Fuerteventura, and I am back in Bethnal Green, posing nude on the floor mats of Eastbourne House. The previous day’s shock of returning to the British winter had been and gone. I was back in my element.
I ravel into contorted positions. If I had been stuck in these positions for half an hour during my long flight home it would have brought forth bitter complaints. Art, however, makes it worthwhile.
Art + I ravel = Air travel … which has no significance, but there it is.
I open the session with a 10-minute seated pose then work through five one-minute poses. The sequence continues: 3, 3, 5, 10, 15. We then break for piping hot lentil stew, rice, garlic bread, tea, marshmallows and a jaffa cake: a nice balanced diet to savour whilst chatting and browsing some quite excellent work:
Break time over, I round off with 25 minutes on my back with folded legs and a raised forearm, and finally a half-hour twisty seated pose. A damp chilly night, perhaps, had reduced artist numbers to 20-30 instead of the usual 40-50, but if anything this gave the group a more relaxed, open feel.
Or perhaps it was just the mood I was in. One in which to enjoy a nice session with a very good set of works to show for it at the end.
Life modelling can be a solitary business. While in pose the model is both the centre of attention and in total isolation. We become a different species of humanity to our artists; a curiosity. The model arrives, disrobes, works in static silence, then leaves. They may never encounter another their own kind.
The reality, of course, isn’t quite so bleak. I’ve enjoyed wonderful warm conversations with life artists and group organisers. Most significantly the Internet – and specifically Facebook – has done more than anything before it to provide space for communities of models to emerge.
Sharon Smithers, a Kent-based model based of some 14 years’ experience, has been instrumental in forging one such community. The secret Facebook group she founded in December 2009 already has 213 members. Establishing this flourishing community was one dream come true. Another of Sharon’s dreams came true last Sunday.
Naked Ambitions life drawing in Whitstable, Sunday 27 October 2013
For a long time she had wanted to stage her own multi-model life drawing event. It was discussed around the table in the Peter Cushing pub, Whitstable at the first meeting of friends and members of Sharon’s Facebook group. Here, on 19 January 2013, the event was given its name: Naked Ambitions.
First gathering of life models, at the Peter Cushing, Whitstable
Fast forward to 27 October 2013, at the Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre, Whitstable. Sharon Smithers is centre-stage. With her are four female and five male models. There too is event organiser, Mike Foreman, and fully 25 artists. It is 10am. Sharon makes a short, emotional speech. Naked Ambitions is a reality.
It’s fitting that five of the models – Sharon, Gill, Hope, Peter and myself – were among those present for that first gathering at the Peter Cushing. Joining us were Anthony, Brian, Laura, Leo and Richard. Artists and easels lined the walls of the Horsebridge’s roof space as we started all together with a 30-minute standing pose.
This was a nice group icebreaker to get us under way while latecomers arrived. Hope and I posed back to back. Afterwards we divided into three smaller groups within the same space. Each group would specialise in holding poses over particular ranges of time. Artists set their chairs around us according to their preferences.
Sharon, Gill and Leo occupied the centre space with single long poses. Brian, Hope and I were in one corner for poses of between 20 and 40 minutes. The others filled the adjacent corner with dynamic poses of one, five or 10 minutes.
Hope sat centrally on a chair in our middle group; I sat on the floor at her feet with my head resting on my right knee, while Brian lay on his side. This first pose was to have lasted 40 minutes but with timekeeping focused on the dynamic group, we probably ran closer to an hour.
Afterwards I filled a five minute interlude with a seated pose. On resumption we went the 35 minutes till lunch with Brian and Hope laying on their backs. I stood in a slight twist holding the back of the chair. Lunch was to have lasted half an hour, but with so many models and artists queuing at the centre’s café, an extension was needed.
When everyone had returned, our middle group swapped places with Anthony, Laura and Peter, while Sharon, Gill and Leo settled down in new long poses. For the shorter poses we took turns in two rounds of five minute poses each.
I started by laying down with one leg and one arm crooked upwards, and next held a lotus position with hands in prayer.
Then for 10 minutes fours of us curled around each other on the floor, reprising a pose from the previous weekend’s Angelo Musco photo shoot.
Hope and I next posed seated, side by side for 10 minutes; Brian worked through five athletic one-minute poses, and we concluded all together with a 10-minute tableau. It had been a good day’s work, one I warmed to more and more as it progressed.
I’ve posed in multi-model groups on many occasions, but this was the first time with smaller sub-groups working in a single space. The dynamics were interesting. During the morning there seemed to be more artists interested in the dynamic poses; in the afternoon it was long poses that drew most attention. Choice was appreciated.
Already there are plans afoot for repeat events next year. Mike’s management of the day ensured everything ran smoothly, and a good turn-out of artists meant that all 10 working life models got a good share of the takings for their contribution.
With experience, refinement and good quality modelling, events like this can only go from strength to strength. All that’s needed is the vision and passion of one inspired individual to get them off the ground. Take a bow, Sharon Smithers. You did it.
Anyone who thinks there’s nothing original left to be done with images of the human nude needs to thinks again. Only in the past year for example, have I discovered the astonishing works of Angelo Musco, and been captivated by his unique visions on a colossal yet minutely detailed scale.
Angelo’s is an art of genuine beauty; conception through substitution, creation through composition. He has taken inspiration from nature’s most wonderful phenomena: long chain molecules; fine plant tissues; spiralling shoals of fish; complex bird nests; the tunnel webs of spiders. Stripping away their substance, he rebuilds with thousands of photographed nude bodies.
© Angelo Musco 2012, all rights reserved, angelomusco.com
His works have been widely celebrated, including a feature in Time magazine, yet until now he had never worked outside the United States. This Saturday, however, he assembled 40-50 volunteers, four assistants and a fellow photographer at Sunbeam Studios in London for a special five-hour shoot. I was privileged to be a part of it.
Our catalyst was fellow model and nude performance specialist, Peter Jacobs, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working numerous times. It was Peter who made initial contact with Angelo and put in a huge amount of work to round up participants on both sides of the camera.
Cometh the day I was surprised quite how many people I knew from previous projects: my fellow Mudheads, Chas, Cy and the two Peters; Adrian, Carol, Gil and John from Existere; Howard and Karen, Lisa, Richard, Rob, Martin and Yvonne from Ghostbird; Camila from Does My…Do I?; and fellow life models Chris, Chris, Hope, Ian, Robert, Sabine and Sharon. An extraordinary gathering of the tribes.
After some introductory words from Angelo and his team, we undressed and entered the all-white space of the studio. Angelo and his fellow photographer Pau Ros would be capturing images from a balcony running the length of one wall.
Tim does the introductions
We worked right through from 11am till around 3pm before taking a break. Angelo and Pau then reviewed their images, after which we resumed for a final session taking us to a 4pm finish. In that time:
- we stood en masse, backs to the photographers, pointing upwards in different layered rows and configurations;
- we lay on the floor in arches of three people at a time, with two ‘supports’ face up, then down, then sideways, and the arching person swapping directions;
- we formed larger arches of five people, using two for each support with the same variations as above;
- we connected in rows of three people, legs across shoulders, arms to legs;
- we extended in longer rows as tramlines that reached the length of the studio;
- we curled on the floor in clusters of four, tightly entwined to eliminate white space between our bodies;
- we amassed in one vast cluster, turning two or three times and reaching arms out in different directions, onto who or what, it was sometimes hard to tell;
- and we stood again in close rectangles facing forwards and away, looking ahead or reaching up.
© Angelo Musco 2013, all rights reserved, angelomusco.com
All the while Angelo’s assistants were adjusting our positions, straightening our lines or smoothing curves. The poses were generally quite simple but on the cold hard floor of the studio they weren’t always tremendously comfortable.
© Angelo Musco 2013, all rights reserved, angelomusco.com
Our reward – aside from enjoying a superb day in the excellent company of friends – was a small print from a previous masterpiece (‘Eyrie’), signed by the master himself. Indeed, we were shown kindness and respect throughout.
© Angelo Musco 2013, all rights reserved, angelomusco.com
Angelo descended from his balcony at the end of the day, offered his thanks and took time to pose for countless individual souvenir photos with models. He is definitely one of the nice guys to work for.
With the lad himself
After the event, back in our clothes, many of us wandered towards Portobello Road to wind down with some food and drink.
As our unlikely group sat among the trendy young things at the heart of the famous market, I wondered if they could imagine us as the heaving heap of naked humanity that we’d been just hours before… or if one day they may marvel at the breathtaking artworks that we would become in the months ahead.
After millennia of the nude in art, the natural body can still surprise and inspire.
steve ritter 