Seventy-five days before A Curious Invitation presented their Masonic Masquerade at the Andaz Hotel in London, a call-out was posted by Art Macabre – “Who wants to pose in a Masonic temple?! Saturday 24 June evening til late? #masonicmidsummer email if interested with photos of your face if I don’t know you already! And if you have any costumes as per the painting 🙂 artmacabre.co.uk” … The theme?
‘The Orgy’ – scene 3 of ‘A Rake’s Progress’ by William Hogarth
I sent an email pitch on behalf of myself and Esther – “a coarse gentleman and bawdy feminist” – alongside dozens of others, and felt hugely lucky and grateful that we were both picked. Working with us would be Lily Holder, model and artist, whom I had last posed with two years before, and helping as volunteer assistants were fellow models Tatiana and Carla. We were to appear in the ‘Hall of the All Seeing Eye’ at 11pm.
Arriving after 10pm, somehow we all miraculously found one another within the sprawl of rooms and foyers. In the main dressing room, Art Macabre director supreme, Nikki, began applying make-up and bits of costume to us. I got a tricorn hat, rouged cheeks and a pursing of red lipstick; Lily was fancified with a feather in her hair; whilst Esther had a powered face, black syphilis spots, and a tangled wig topped with a bonnet.
The previous show had overrun in the ‘Hall of the All Seeing Eye’, so it was with haste that Nikki prepared our stage. Doors were then cast open for immaculately-costumed, if somewhat inebriated, masked guests, with encouragements to draw. When all were settled, Nikki commenced her presentation of ‘A Rake’s Progress‘ – the fictional tale of Tom Rakewell, told in a series of eight paintings by William Hogarth.
I portrayed Tom, whilst Lily and Esther alternated either as his spurned fiancée, Sarah Young, or assorted harlots. First I was solo and preening in new found wealth, then on came Lily with raised ‘put-a-ring-on-it’ finger, and next came a good clean orgy. Poses were all short: 5-minutes, 7, 10 being most frequent; never less than 3-minutes, never more than 15. Onlookers drew complete tableaux, or sometimes just individuals.
Our artists came and went; some stayed absorbed, whilst others shambled, slumped, drew and withdrew. After Nikki was all done creating and narrating A Rake’s Progress in its entirety, we took a pause to reset the stage. The room was cleared, but only for a few minutes. Soon Tatiana and Carla were back among the raucous revellers, luring them towards our domain. The tableaux recommenced.
We were due to be posing until one o’clock in the morning, but I had lost my sense of time and how much of it remained. For the second half, we started from the beginning again, only now with fewer individual tableaux. Each came with an appropriate playlist, yet as we neared the end, Nikki’s music was all but drowned out by the noisy hubbub of socialites sketching. We finished in the Gaming House, Prison and Madhouse…
Nikki herself joined us in the final scene. It was a lovely way to close an extraordinary evening. Afterwards Esther and I got changed and checked out the entertainments on offer in the Masonic Temple, Confession Booth and other glamorous settings. Tatiana, Carla, Lily and Nikki were still lost deep within their midst when eventually we slipped away. Sadly we missed saying goodbyes, but we’d enjoyed great Progress together.
Arriving at The Dellow Centre, life drawing group organiser, Tim was only half-joking when he said it could be just the two of us. With temperatures above 30°C, he’d seen artist numbers had melted away at other groups. Indeed, when I commenced my first 10-minute standing pose, there were two artists drawing me – Tim plus one other. By the time my next 10-minute pose began, the tally was up to four, and when I followed it seated on a chair with arms crooked for 20-minutes, there were six.
At the end of that third pose, the sweat was pouring off me. I closed the first half with another 10-minutes on the chair – now for seven artists – but this time I loosened my body to keep it cooler. A small heater in the room had been reset to blow out cold air, and I’d tilted it slightly in my favour. The price exacted for slouching and leaning back was an unpleasantly stiff neck, but some nice portrait work was the result. My nudity for most artists seemed immaterial at this point.
After tea and Jaffa Cakes, we resumed with a 15-minute standing pose. To conclude the session, I reclined for 35-minutes with one knee raised and both hands upon my torso. All seven artists had started drawing me but, from around the midway point, a succession of mercurial and occasional clattering disappearances meant that by the end there were just three. My limbs had all died on me and it took me a few minutes to stand again. Nonetheless… a pleasant Sunday afternoon.
It was a perfect evening for life drawing. Warm enough for the window upstairs at 83a Geffrye Street, Hoxton to be opened wide for fresh air, yet mellow enough for nature’s temperature control to find its ideal level without irksome draughts. This pleasantness might have tempted some to follow outdoor pursuits, but about two-thirds of the seats were taken by the end of my opening 10-minutes in a standing posture.
After this first pose, I stood for 3-minutes and 2-minutes, knelt for two 1-minute poses and a 5-minute pose then was back on two feet for a further 5-minute pose. It felt nice to be working here in the round for a laid-back crowd of young artists; not overdoing it, but keeping the shapes interesting and diverse. I closed the first half with a 15-minute semi-reclining pose, followed by 15-minutes seated on the floor.
During the interval I removed my white sheet from the central space so a trestle table could be brought forth and spread lavishly with assorted breads and dips. Once these had been consumed, we completed the session with two 30-minute poses. First I sat upon a stool in a manner that utterly numbed my left leg and, having done so, had no choice but to finish in a full recline. Another great London Life Drawing evening.
It doesn’t take much shifting for a simple, sustainable pose to become challenging or unnecessarily achy. On Monday evening, at The Conservatoire, I was asked for six poses: three of 1-minute, one each of 5-minutes and 10-minutes, and a long pose for the rest of the evening. I managed to make half of them harder than they should have been and I think that’s partly because I have really come to love working here for this group and its tutor, Victoria Rance. They inspire me to try more.
For the first pose, I balanced on one leg, clutching my left foot behind me with my left hand and raising my right arm out in front. It’s a straightforward pose for most models but I have a high centre of gravity and spindly legs, so I was a tad trembly throughout. Standing, kneeling, standing followed – all without complication – but more trickiness came when I slouched diagonally on a high chair, with my left arm dangling back over the top of my head.
Without the extended limb, that 10-minute pose would have been easy. Inexplicably, however, within a few moments it went completely numb and became a dead weight bearing down through my angled neck. After about five minutes of this, the pain was horrible and I had to try shaking the arm back to life. We completed the full time, or maybe stopped a minute short, but I’ve never before experienced such difficulty with any pose this short.
For the long pose, Victoria asked me to curl up on my side in a foetal position whilst artists stood in a semi-circle around me. I opened the pose out a little, otherwise one would see just the top of my head, and another only my derrière. It should have been very comfortable – and mostly was – except I had placed my head on my left biceps, and twisted the other hand under my chin. Two timely stretch breaks kept the aches at bay, however. At the end, it was great to see the diversity of works created.
Esther was originally given this booking, whereas I was due to be at Garrett Centre on Wednesday the week before. A change of circumstances, however, made it a tad problematic for Esther, so I suggested a swap. The organiser of both groups, Adrian Dutton, was agreeable to the idea, and so it came to pass that I returned for another Friday evening’s long-pose session.
Long poses are never much of a joy, but the shorter warm-up poses here can be fun. Working in the round for about two dozen artists, I was asked to provide three poses of 5-minutes and one of 8-minutes. I stood dramatically then semi-reclined, stood up elegantly and sat openly. For the long pose I opted to stand with my left hand on my belly and my right hand on the back of my neck.
I guess I was on my feet from around 7:25pm to 8pm, and then after an interval, from 8:25pm to 9:30pm. I took two stretch breaks during that latter hour. The first of these was especially needed as my raised elbow had inexplicably become a heavy, painful burden. After restoring normal sensation, I was fine through to the close. Such is the occasional unpredictability of the body. Life modelling continues to reveal new truths.
Green Rooms describes itself online as “the UK’s first arts hotel, a social enterprise that offers affordable accommodation in a beautiful setting that inspires creativity.” It is also the latest venue to host The Moon and Nude for monthly life drawing groups. Esther and I travelled up to Wood Green, north London for our first experience of the place, and to début life modelling there as a duo.
We would be working in the third floor Gallery – a cavernous space with a high ceiling and large skylight, ornamented with Art Deco styled glass. Its openness could easily provide for a circle of thirty or forty artists but on this occasion we would be posing for seventeen – a healthy congregation, with room to move around. We began: 5-minutes standing, 10 standing, 15 with Esther standing and me embracing one of her legs.
The first half ended with Esther reclining for 20-minutes while I sat tenderly at her side. Recent warm spring temperatures had dropped this evening and we felt a slight chill in the last few minutes before the interval. Heaters were duly brought forth for our closing 50-minute pose, in which we sat side by side on a large bag of hotel laundry. Only the duration made this one less comfortable. The session itself had been a pleasure.
xxxx
In the Essex village of Hockley, about 6 miles to the north of Southend, a life drawing gem has emerged: cut, polished and sparkling. It was my privilege and pleasure to be booked as model for the first ever session of Hockley Life Drawing at The Old Fire Station – home to Hockley Parish Council. Upon arriving, I found chairs in a circle, a sheet awaiting me at the centre, and a superb buffet of refreshments for the interval.
If I’d been slightly apprehensive, it was because one can never be sure what teething troubles might beset a start-up group, or whether anyone would even come to draw. I need not have worried as 16 artists had already expressed interest, and all turned-up on the evening. We opened dynamically with no fewer than ten 1-minute poses, then lengthened to four of 5-minutes, before ending the first half with a 10-minute pose.
Tea, coffee, beer and wine, plus a selection of cheese and biscuits were taken during our break, after which I resumed with two more 10-minute poses. My dynamic poses had been a tad challenging to draw so, “by popular demand”, I made the first of these quite plain. The session ended with me seated on a stool for 20-minutes. It had been a joy to work here, and also to chat with so many nice people. I hope to return.
steve ritter 