Upon looking back through this blog I was rather shocked to find my last booking with Tottenham Art Classes was almost exactly two years ago. The London Overground line between Barking and South Tottenham had been closed during much of that time, so the venue would have been difficult for me to reach, but now I was back on track in every regard. This visit would be different to those of bygone days, however, as tonight the group had a temporary home in the games room of The Beehive…
The pub’s usual life drawing space had been borrowed for some other function, but its games room, while smaller, still comfortably accommodated more than 20 artists with seats to spare. The pool table had been shoved into one corner and I would be posing in the round. We began with two 2-minute poses, then doubled to two 4-minute poses, followed by 10-minutes kneeling and 15-minutes sitting on the floor. What remained of the first half – a fraction over snother 15-minutes – I spent perched upon a low stool.
This was the first session of autumn at which I felt heating might be essential. Happily the preparation here is spot-on with a pair of small fan heaters already whirring warmly when I arrived. After the interval, we resumed with two poses of 5-minutes, then two of 15-minutes. I was recycling poses from last week, and wondered if I ought to come up with something new, but Taz – the group’s organiser – suggested I reprise poses from great drawings I recently shared online… And, lo, great drawings resulted here too.
Late afternoon turned to the darker end of twilight as I arrived at The Victoria Stakes pub in Muswell Hill. Standing outside, I looked up to a wide, well-lit sweep of windows on the first-floor, guessing that it would be my pose space. The venue was new to me, and relatively new to The Moon and Nude too; it was only their second ever session at this fine establishment. Hopefully it will become a regular weekly fixture – the room turned out to be absolutely perfect for life drawing.
It may be a new gathering but already it is a popular one. They’d been joined by thirty artists for their opening night the week before, and at least twenty were in attendance this evening. As they settled in a large oval of chairs, I changed unobtrusively into my robe at the room’s far corner. Come 7pm we began: 1-minute kneeling, then standing for 2-minutes, 3, 4, and 5-minutes in a variety of extremes. Another 10-minute upright pose followed, before the first half ended with 15-minutes sitting on the floor.
After a break – in which I enjoyed a pleasant chat with Jaideep Chakrabarti (several of his colourful paintings are on this blog post) – I continued with a 40-minute reclining pose. Somehow I made this gratuitously uncomfortable, and consequently had to pick a fairly robust stance for my last 10-minute pose to avoid wobbliness. Warm applause at the end was greatly appreciated – but that wide sweep of windows… apparently the pub received calls saying a naked man was visible! Good publicity for them, I hope.
Having been fairly astonished to find myself posing for a bumper crowd of 31 artists at The Sun on Monday, I was doubly impressed that no fewer than 32 turned up to draw me the next evening. My June visit to The Workshop had barely two-thirds as many. Truly, life drawing picks up in a big way after the summer months. As is traditional, we started with a 10-minute standing pose – a stride, twist and sideways gesture – which allowed latecomers time to settle down before we moved onto quicker work.
I’d enjoyed my poses yesterday so tonight I honed them further, making a better job of aligning them to the various durations. We proceeded with three 2-minutes poses, two 5-minute poses, and two 15-minutes poses, taking us to an interval. After a half-hour’s break to enjoy assorted breads and dips, I concluded with two 30-minute poses. Good session; one or two aches afterwards – as is probably inevitable – but I am happy with how things are going. And it was great to be back for London Life Drawing.
The function room upstairs at The Sun in Clapham is a good size for informal drop-in life drawing. Many moons ago, when only eight people turned up it seemed positively cavernous. This evening, however, with two minutes until start time it seemed we had twenty people present already and just four or five chairs left. I said to stand-in Moon and Nude facilitator, Steven “you should be all right“. Then three more artists walked in together… and then another three…
In total, it was reckoned I had 31 people drawing me. Unprecedented, I think; certainly in my time here. More familiar, however, was the sequence of pose lengths we started with: 5-minutes, 4, 3, 2, 1-minute. After all these early standing and kneeling dynamic moves, I finished the first half with less leg-straining, more arm-straining, seated work; two poses of 20-minutes each: first with one arm extended across a raised knee, then leaning forward onto my left forearm.
We closed with two 25-minute poses: first standing with right arm up and left arm out, then reclining with a twist. From outside I could hear occasional wind-lashes – subtle side-swipes from Hurricane Ophelia as it tormented the Republic of Ireland – whilst a clear sky had replaced the day’s eerie orange haze created by in-blown Saharan sand and Iberian ash. Inside, however, we were all nicely comfortable with a flickering fire in the grate and the warm ambience of a enjoyable evening. Good session.
On Friday 13 October, Esther and I travelled down to Totnes, Devon to participate in “the world’s first ever festival of body acceptance“. The inaugural BodyKind Festival would include speakers, workshops, art, photography, theatre, dance, film and music, all “looking at ways of feeling more comfortable in the skin we’re in“. Esther had been invited to lead a Spirited Bodies life modelling workshop on the Saturday evening.
Festivities opened at The Royal Seven Stars with ‘A Night in the Stars‘. We settled down with a bottle of wine to enjoy poetry by Chris Paradox, naked stand-up comedy by Glory Pearl, and a grand finale that had most of the audience on their feet dancing with School of Strut. Chris was both engaging and edgy, whilst Glory was exactly our kind of performer! And although I’m not a natural strutter, I loved Strut’s blog post.
Saturday was ‘Core Event‘ day, in which a series of speakers (including Glory again) preached their body-positive message at St Mary’s Church from 10:30am to 4:30pm. Too many to laud individually, but top marks go to Suzanne Fearnside for her words on older women, to Not Just Behaviour for their work on children’s body confidence, to My Body Positive for listening to the body itself, and, of course, Harnaam Kaur…
Harnaam Kaur – “the bearded dame” – on bullying and self-acceptance.
As the Core Event closed amid rapturous applause at 4:30pm, so Esther and I briskly made our way to Studio 1 in The Mansion – a grand community building on the main street through town. Esther’s workshop was one of five, all separately ticketed, due to start at 5pm, so we did wonder if anyone would join us! After a nervous wait to get the door unlocked, eight people arrived – a healthy number, given the room’s limit was 15.
Esther outside ‘The Mansion’ in Fore Street, central Totnes.
The studio was ideal: a fully equipped art room with easels and large cushions for the models. We hastily cleared the centre space, set-up the easels and provided drawing materials for each artist. It then fell for me to provide the icebreaker pose – 5-minutes standing. I withdrew to one corner, removed my clothes, and wrapped a sheet around my waist. When called, I stepped forward, dropped the sheet and got into position.
Spirited Bodies is model-centred. Esther shares advice and experience then asks the group: who would like to try modelling for themselves? Three said they would give it a go. First a woman who initially was unsure about men being in the room (me and one other), but then decided to pose with a sheet around her waist, reclining and standing for 5-minutes each. Next was my fellow male, with two poses of 10-minutes each.
Everybody is unique. Our first volunteer overcame her apprehensions to stand strong and confident for her final pose, yet still didn’t want any photos of drawings to appear online. Our second volunteer runs a life group himself but wanted to experience the model’s perspective. Our third volunteer was also no stranger to life drawing, but was now keen to try being the subject. She posed for 5 and 10-minutes.
The spirit in the studio was open, engaging and encouraging. Often at Spirited Bodies events, models opt to pose in group tableaux that Esther suggests, but here – maybe inspired by the whole festival vibe – they were empowered individuals, content to take the floor solo. Nobody posed fully nude, but their personal breakthroughs were all that mattered. At the group’s request, Esther and I finished with a 15-minute duo pose.
The session was over at 7:30pm. We debriefed whilst packing away, and it was lovely to be part of that warm atmosphere. I felt it had been a positive evening for all involved, irrespective of whether they modelled or not; it seemed everybody had opened up and embraced the occasion. Certainly Esther and I had enjoyed their company. That night we celebrated with a superb meal at Willow Vegetarian Restaurant.
St Mary’s Church and the River Dart at Totnes.
The view from Totnes Castle.
We loved Totnes from the moment we stepped off the train – it purrs with independent vivacity and creativity. Everyone was so kind and helpful, from Dinah Gibbons whose drive took the BodyKind Festival from dream to reality, to her friends who opened their wonderful home to us and were the most generous hosts imaginable, to the multitude of volunteers who gave up their time. Thank you, Totnes, I hope we’ll be back!
“This is the water, and this is the well
Drink full and descend
The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within.”
When the first two series of Twin Peaks were broadcast from 1990 to 1991, I’d been an avid follower of every episode. Nowadays, however, I watch almost no television at all, so the programme’s return in 2017 had sadly passed me by. It meant that when I was offered the opportunity to model as a “very iconic character” from Series 3 at the Twin Peaks UK Festival, I couldn’t begin to think what might be involved. And then I was shown video of ‘The Woodsman‘ in action…
Within the festival’s weekend schedule, Art Macabre life drawing was set for 3pm to 4pm on Saturday 7 October, and 1pm to 2pm the following day. Molly Beth Morossa would be posing as Audrey Horne on both days, but I was only available for day one. I arrived promptly at 2pm to give plenty of time for make-up and costume. Jon Attfield was taking the reins for this event, so it was a bit of a reunion; I’d posed together with Jon and Molly for the Art Macabre Sherlock Bones event in December 2015.
Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre – home of Twin Peaks UK Festival 2017
“If we’re not at the right place at exactly the right time, we won’t find our way in.”
Jon’s preparation for the weekend had been meticulous. I provided only my body and my faded old black jeans, whereas Job brought boots, T-shirt, shirt, fingerless gloves, hat, fake beard, candy-stick cigarettes and Snazaroo face paint. While methodically transforming into character, we were occasionally smiled upon by passing costumed cabaret artists from the Double R Club – major players in bringing the festival to life. We were ready in good time. At 3pm, upon Jon’s cue we entered the Black Lodge.
Me, The Woodsman … The Woodsman, Me
The Black Lodge – © SoulStealer Photography
© Jon Attfield, for Art Macabre
Whilst I myself had not hitherto been acquainted with The Woodsman, a spontaneous “ooooh” from ‘Peakies’ in our audience suggested a high approval rating for the choice of this character – and for Jon’s uncannily accurate recreation of him. Audrey and The Woodsman would be sharing the Black Lodge sofa space for six poses: 5-minutes, 5, 7, 10, 10, and 15-minutes. They may not have encountered one another in any series, but it happened right here in Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre.
In suitably surreal Twin Peaks style, shortly after the fourth pose commenced we had a fox wander into the Black Lodge and remain skulking behind the curtains for a time. This was a first for me in any life drawing setting. After our initial surprise – naturally I remained motionless – the show went on, and the task of luring out the timid creature fell to Jon. Until now, it seemed as though he’d planned for every eventuality, yet even he could be forgiven in not foreseeing this one.
It was a drawing session for fans rather than dedicated artists, but the fans acquitted themselves well. It was a pleasure to enjoy their drawings and share the enthusiasm after our final pose. A few photos were taken in the Black Lodge, before Martin – the official photographer from SoulStealer Photography – led me through other festival rooms to get some more evocative shots; his images are stunning. It then remained only for me to wash, change and grab coffee and a doughnut. Damn fine festival.
My return to Rhodes Avenue Primary School put me centre stage for a new set of lessons. We opened with three poses of roughly 4-minutes each – I say “roughly” as all of the evening’s poses began with an intended duration in mind, but finished when the time seemed about right rather than being precision checked. Having warmed-up her half-a-dozen parents, carers and friends, teacher Rosie presented two exercises: first drawing negative space, and then drawing with masking tape.
For 20-minutes I was to stand in front of a large A-frame ladder, my elbows crooked and left knee bent. Artists were to sketch all the in-between spaces but try to avoid directly capturing the lines of my figure. This proved a tough task. Far more fun was the challenge of capturing my basic form using flat masking tape on paper, drawing over it, and then creating a graphite rubbing of the relief. For this, I stood leaning for 20-minutes with one foot upon a high chair.
There are no tea breaks here, just short time-outs for artists to look at one another’s work after each exercise. For the final pose, I was asked to have my legs flat on the floor and my body upright. I found a suitable sustainable position and stayed in it for 40-minutes, eavesdropping Rosie’s suggestions for looking and mark-making, along with the occasional chatter of this friendly group. Come 9pm, my limbs were slow to reanimate in the first chill of autumn… but I was warmed by some nice artworks.
steve ritter 