My first all-day booking of 2024 was this class at Brockley Adult Education Centre, led by tutor Joanna McCormick. Temperatures both outside and inside were mellow for mid-February, but warm-up exercises for artists are nonetheless de rigueur:
1-minute pose – expressive scribbling with a graphite stick
2-minute pose – circles and triangles with coloured pens
3-minute pose – graphite shadows and blending with a eraser
4-minute pose – hatching and cross-hatching with a black pen
5-minute pose – background as a starting point
After this flurry I sat to one side while students were shown a short video on the work of artist Curtis Holder. Jo followed this with further tuition and demonstrations. Once everyone was thoroughly inspired, I presented a seated pose of 30 minutes.
A short break followed, then out came graphite pencils, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils, and watercolour paints. Jo demonstrated techniques with each, before I took my seat once more and remained in pose for 45 minutes… which became 50.
I was nicely comfortable and gladly agreed to a 5-minute extension. We took time out for lunch, then settled down to one long pose that completed the afternoon. I fidgeted into the most cosy reclining attitude achievable, and stayed there for 90 minutes.
Such beautiful vibrant spiritual works; such diversity of vision and interpretation. This wasn’t a group of highly-experienced classically-trained artists, but each one opened their mind to a freer way of seeing and mark-making. That’s my idea of art.
At the end of a not-uncomfortable, yet nonetheless perched-upright seated long pose for my last visit to The Conservatoire, tutor Victoria Rance gave notice that I could expect a reclining pose for my next booking. Lovely. And so it came to pass.
After three warm-up poses of 1 minute, and one each of 5 and 10 minutes, we set-up the 2-hour long pose. At first we considered a reprise of me lying flat and straight with arms at my sides. It’s better than it sounds, but we’ve done it twice before, so…
…I tweaked it. This time I put my left fingers on my chest, folded my left leg under my right thigh, and allowed right leg and right arm to drape limp from my raised platform. Sorted. It was comfortable enough for me not to need a stretch during the first hour.
I’d planned to take just one break throughout the entire duration, but numbness crept into my hanging limbs during the second hour so a little shake-out was necessary. By the end, great drawings emerged with foreshortening handled superbly. Good work!
Esther and I returned to our humble corner of happiness in the studio of Avidyā for a booking brought forward by one week. Sad circumstances meant we would no longer be able to align with Chinese New Year, but there was no sadness on this day.
As per our three previous monthly sessions, we warmed-up with a couple of quickfire untimed poses for loose charcoal sketches. From start to finish our work for Avidyā is all about energy. It manifests most abundantly in the smiling faces.
For the main pose, we sought to recreate our physical and energetic connection from the previous month so Avidyā could continue developing a painting she’d marked out. We resumed our positions and reset our smiles.
We’d barely settled when the energy to lifted unexpectedly from joyful contentment to outright playfulness. Avidyā unwrapped a new canvas to capture her fresh inspiration. She’d seen purity with a childlike innocence and wanted to paint us in a child’s style.
For an adult to paint convincingly in the style of a young child takes great skill. Esther and me, the fairytale princess and prince – so sweet! After, we all celebrated Chinese New Year one week early with a fine family meal at Yi-Ban. Enter the Dragon…
After the excitement of being invited to the short pose space at Mall Galleries on my last visit for Hesketh Hubbard Art Society, I was back to familiar territory for a more sedentary session with the portrait artists… amid remarkable vegetation in pastel.
As I settled down for the first of my two unbroken hours seated and motionless in the hot seat I removed my glasses and directed my hazy myopic gaze at the distant pink blur of Esther on shorts. Sixty minutes passed; four poses for Esther, one for me.
It remains rather mind-bending to be physically immobile for an hour with nothing but one’s own thoughts for sustenance while artists scrutinise each follicle and molecule, every pore and flaw. But I get tea and biscuits at half-time. And one more hour, ’til…
Artwork by Tony Swann.
Artwork by Desmond Sloane.
Artwork by Neesha Khan.
Artwork by Philip Stones.
Artwork by Vanya Marinova.
Astonishing artworks. Thank you! Last time Esther and I were here, the third model was Leo @Jigglechick87. We got a fine photo of the three of us back then, and hey, here we at Leo’s birthday party the evening after this. Good times, special people. 💖
It had been so long since I’d last posed for life drawing online – February 2022 – that I struggled to recall the set-up for Zoom. However, my wait for another chance to work with London Drawing Group had been even longer – not since February 2020 – so there was no way I would let this one pass me by. I drafted a little pose plan.
Tutor Lucy McGeown had shared the pose times in advance and said I could decide on the poses as it wasn’t going to be a themed class. That done, I readied my studio. Heating on, chair in front of a radiator, yoga mat in front of the chair, a white sheet for contrast, phone on tripod, laptop on table, both devices connected to Zoom. Sorted!
Artwork by Steph.
Artwork by Steph.
Preparation of a pose plan is still a rare practice for me but, feeling a tad rusty on the technical requirements, I thought it best to have one less thing (or in fact 10 fewer) to think about. As it was, all went very well. A slightly late start meant the last pose was cut from 40 to 30 minutes but such adjustments are commonplace in life classes.
Artwork by Steph.
Lucy led the session smoothly throughout, staying in the sweet spot between offering only suggestions or observations (never instructions) and allowing silence to reign. At no time was I aware how many artists were online drawing me. To this day I still have no clue whether it was a handful or hundreds. Plenty, I suspect; the chat was busy.
Online sessions are an invaluable means of taking part for people – be they artists or models – who might otherwise have no access to life drawing. As a model working in London with its many opportunities, it’s perhaps complacent to say I prefer in-person bookings. I’m lucky they are there for me… and I’m glad to be there for those online.
The Invitation
Hi Steve and Esther, Happy New Year! We are reopening on Thursday 18 Jan with a free class to celebrate our 10th birthday. Are you both available to model from 7-9pm at The Beehive pub? Please let me know. Best, Taz.
With some diary adjustment – thank you, Carl – we were indeed both available. We’d modelled together for their 4th birthday and 8th birthday and it never ceases to feel an honour to be invited. 💖 Happy 10th birthday, Tottenham Art Classes!! 💖
The Event
When a class is free, it’s natural to expect more people will attend than usual. What a glorious sight, though, to walk into a life room and find it buzzing with row after row of merry artists. I counted 35 before we started, but reckon the final total was nearer 50.
The high turn-out meant Esther and I had to alternate at each end of the room rather than connect closely at the centre. It was a pity, but… ç’est la vie, que sera sera, etc. We opened energetically: two 1-minute poses, two of 2 minutes, two of 5 minutes.
With such quickfire work from the outset, it was probably a kindness to artists that we weren’t able to intertwine. For the rest of this first half one of us stood whilst the other sat on a stool. Poses of 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 12 minutes took us to half-time.
Cometh the break, cometh the birthday cupcakes! Cute chocolaty handfuls with thick icing and rainbow sprinkles, courtesy of Sugar Tea Room – divine! But we devoured them with such gusto that our white floor sheet quickly became a riot of crumbs.
After cake, wine and giving the pose space a cursory clean, we returned to work with poses of 5, 10 and 15 minutes. Holding hands during the 10-minute pose was, sadly, our only physical connection on the occasion… but it got a nice smile from Taz. 😁
And so to the endgame. With barely more than 10 minutes remaining, Taz suggested we finish with five poses of 2 minutes each. We closed the session as we’d opened it, energetically switching room-ends in a blur of staccato shapeshifting.
It had been an extraordinary and wonderful evening. We’d had a cat dashing through our pose space, regular cries of “chips!” ordered from the bar, a free range dog at the denouement, and – of course – there was some dizzyingly sublime art.
Artists on Instagram
As if to emphasise how much community has built around this group, within 24 hours there were oodles of Instagram posts tagged by artists sharing their creations. These ones below are but a few. Thank you, everybody! Thank you, Taz and Tom! x
Artwork by Charlie Jermy
Artwork by Ted Bosy
Artwork by Ted Bosy
Artwork by Ted Bosy
Artwork by Warren
Artwork by Warren
Life modelling 2024 started slowly but sweetly, with Esther in my arms for the third of our monthly bookings with artist Avidyā. When she’s not making art Avidyā practices energy healing – it’s curious to pose for somebody who is less interested in capturing our physical presence than our spiritual essence and the energy of our connection.
For the painting above, a quick opening pose put our profiles in the lower foreground, after which our pale spirits ascended behind from a longer pose. Plenty of breaks are encouraged during what are essentially two hours of untimed freestyle work. Comfort is prioritised over precision each time we resume after a stretch. It’s quality time.
Nice too to see the fruits of our previous collaborations still in the studio. The painting above was from our last session together in December. Esther also often poses solo for Avidyā, most recently sitting for the stunning artwork below. Our next appointment is on Chinese New Year – what art shall we make as we enter the dragon?
steve ritter 