The Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings basement always appears to me somehow crudely reminiscent of an Ottoman Empire interior. Notwithstanding the concrete floor and ceiling, metal girders and French tapestry print on thin cotton sheets that line the walls – for me, it’s the low cushioned benches covered in patterned fabric that extend continuously round the room, and the rows of small holes that emit a kaleidoscope of pastel-tinted light from behind the tapestry prints…
When I arrived, all the artists present were young women – I felt as though I’d walked into the wrong hammam.
By the time a few more artists joined us, including some men, there were 18 in total. Gareth was running the show on behalf of Adrian Dutton. He explained his plan for poses: after 10-minutes standing, I was to rotate through four poses of 2.5-minutes, descending a little with each move. I would next rotate through four 5-minute poses, all sitting on a low cushioned cube, and then stand again for a single pose up to the interval – for this I grasped one of the girders for 13-minutes.
The second half began with 5-minutes standing, followed by two reclining poses each of 15-minutes, aligned east to west, then south to north. The session concluded with two 12-minute seated poses – one on the floor, the other reprising an earlier pose on the cube that Gareth had particularly liked. What an enjoyable evening! This venue is far from being a favourite but the format and times of poses fitted my style perfectly. I could be both expressive and comfortable – the artists seemed well pleased too.
It was supposed to be a quiet week for me, with Monday at Mall Galleries being my only booking. Sunday evening offers from Ravensbourne and SketchPad Drawing, however, changed all that – Wednesday 1 March would be a third successive evening of working after my full-time day job. Combined with unaccountably disrupted sleep, I was becoming a physically tired life model. Still, I felt enthused for all three sessions, each one having its own special appeal.
Lisa – organiser of SketchPad Drawing – had asked if there was any theme I fancied. Hmm. “Theme, theme, theme… well, it’s St David’s Day so you could furnish us with daffodils and leeks if you like.” Duly, three small bunches of daffodils awaited when I arrived at The Prince Regent – though it seemed I wouldn’t be having a leek in pose. The ‘us’ in my consideration was whomever Lisa had booked as her other model; this turned out to be Vanessa, who I’d last seen when working there in October.
Vanessa was to start modelling in the main room – entwined in the legs of a table on its side – whilst I would take the floor in an adjacent room. As is the standard format, we would then swap rooms at half-time. Lisa armed me with two bunches of the daffs and asked me to be expressive with my limbs through a sequence of short to medium pose lengths. I began with 10-minutes standing, one arm crooked over my head, and the other crooked across my belly.
I went down on one knee for 5-minutes, then stood on one leg for a further 5-minutes, with the other knee folded tight upon a chest of drawers. Realising that I’d weakened my lower limbs a little, I was tempted to make the next pose easy. Lisa was keen for me to stand in the middle of the room, however, open and expansive for 15-minutes. I readily agreed but could feel my thigh and calf muscles fibrillating throughout. For the final 20-minutes of our first half, I sat on the floor – angular but comfortable.
During the interval I switched to the main room where a single 40-minute pose would bring our session to an end. Lisa asked that I lay upon a sofa – fine by me! At first, I hitched up my knees so I was partly-curled, but instead she asked that I sprawl out, with one foot down on the floor. I duly complied and, with daffodils under each armpit, concluded the session in relative comfort. As ever, a plethora of artists at easels had worked wonders. This remains one of my top 5 favourite venues to model.
The call-out for this job was posted to the Register of Artists Models (RAM) website on Tuesday 21 February, exactly a week in advance. It took me two days to notice it, so I didn’t hold out much hope when I emailed my speculative pitch. Thus, it came as a pleasant surprise when I received a text message, late Sunday evening, offering me the booking. My RAM subscription for the year had finally paid off.
Ravensbourne is a modern campus on the Greenwich peninsula, directly outside the O2 Arena. Strange I had not previously been here, despite it being so convenient for me to reach. Indeed the only inconvenience was that Esther and I had arranged to go out for a meal on this date, but we are adaptable – the organisers kindly permitted Esther to join us as an artist, and we still shared a fine Mexican meal afterwards.
I was greeted at Ravensbourne by Anita, the art tutor. In my email to her, I’d said “My ‘interesting’ quality is in being, at 6’4″, one of the tallest life models on the circuit. At 10st9, I’m also quite slender and have been described as Schiele-esque“. Thus, she was quite keen on me to reproduce some Egon Schiele poses. These can be tricky but Anita was so engaging and considerate that we found an easy accord.
I started with quick poses: three of 2-minutes, one of 5-minutes, one 10-minutes – a mixture of dynamism, diversity, and attempted elegance. The first half ended with an Egon Schiele pose of 25-minutes, in which most joints were at right-angles. The last 40-minutes was a Schiele adaptation, seated on the floor. I’d thoroughly enjoyed this session, all the more so for Esther being there. Hopefully we will return some day.
I’ve enjoyed plenty of bookings modelling solo or duo on the 30-minute and long pose sessions for Hesketh Hubbard Art Society… but how might I get on posing for their portrait work? This was the evening I would find out. I was to be seated – clothed and motionless – for one complete hour, then have a 15-minute break for tea and biscuits before returning to another full hour in the same position.
As ever, I found Mall Galleries busy with artists. Most were there for the nude poses but portraiture gets its own small yet loyal following. Nine artists were present – eight of them practising on the other – when I arrived. With a couple of minutes till our 6pm start, I took my place in front of their semi-circle, picked a convenient gaze point, and settled my body. As always with portrait work, the challenge would be to stay awake.
I felt my eyelids getting heavier during the first hour, although they never quite flickered shut. Something in the half-time tea must have perked me up, however, as I was quite alert after that. I whiled away the session setting myself geography tests: 25 countries beginning with the letter ‘S’; 15 capital cities beginning with ‘B’; 11 countries beginning with ‘A’; 7 countries beginning with ‘U’…
I’d employed these simple memory challenges many times before, so really I ought to come up with something original. Not that it matters. In less imaginative moments, I’m more likely to be counting down seconds – anything to pass the time when meditation and internal creative writing elude me. At 8:15pm, we were done. I was very grateful to the six artists who stayed with me and shared a little mutual appreciation at the end.
As I made my way to the Garrett Centre for the evening’s long-pose session, I tried to decide: what pose? My natural inclination is to stand as I imagine most models prefer sitting or laying down, so standing may be appreciated more. Then again, I stood last time and on a couple of other occasions so I reckoned I was due a change. I was still making up my mind when I entered and saw a step ladder in the pose space.
My destiny was clearly preordained… I would be seated at the top of a step ladder for the better part of two hours. And that was fine; I knew I could make it comfortable and interesting. First we cycled through some warm-up poses: three of 5-minutes and one of 8-minutes. I tried to make these varied, with a couple fairly dynamic to contrast the sedentary work ahead.
And so to the ladder. The most crucial moments of long poses are those last seconds before settling into position. One misjudgement of balance, or a pressure point, or the twist of a limb, or weight distribution, can mean much pain ahead. Even so, faced with two dozen artists all keen to begin, there’s an instinct to rush. On this occasion haste resulted in my left foot being pressed a bit too much into the angle of a rung. (sigh)
I sat upon my lofty perch for 35 minutes to the interval, and then a further 70 minutes with two stretch breaks before the end. Left foot and right hand needed shaking from their discomfort but otherwise it was all good and I absolutely loved the artworks that had been created. One artist even went to the trouble of drawing me with long blonde fly-away hair, whilst another got my grey sides perfectly. Nicely done – thank you.
Esther and I arrived quarter of an hour early at Fairkytes Art Centre, yet found seven artists were already sitting in a tight arc around our pose space. More turned up while we chatted with group organisers Natansky and Estelle. In our first pose – 5-minutes standing back to back – I faced away from the door and couldn’t see what was going on, but still it sounded like every few seconds another person was walking in…
Eventually we had an unprecedented eighteen artists drawing us, some finding space on the floor when chairs ran out. For our second pose, I reclined for 10-minutes whilst Esther stood with one foot upon my chest. Next Esther sat on a bar stool and I stood behind her for 15-minutes; finally with 19-minutes left in the first half, Esther stood tall as I sat hugging her left leg.
After tea and biscuits at the interval, we set up a 42-minute pose taking us through to the close. It was a tried and tested routine in which we both sat on a pile of cushions, me with my back to the wall and Esther with her back on my chest. Unfortunately, we were in trouble from the outset as the cushion behind me started slipping slightly with every breath I took. What should have been relaxing became an exercise in control.
It wasn’t horrendously painful, and there was still the sweet consolation of sharing with Esther, yet I couldn’t pretend not to be relieved when it was over. Esther peeled herself from me and revealed a large red sweaty imprint across my sunken torso. What larks! But it was lovely to see some inspired artworks at the end, and great that the session had been so successful. At this rate they may have to consider using a bigger room.
“Would you like to see yourself as a twelve year-old boy in the style of Picasso?” Hey, who wouldn’t? This offer was put to me by one artist at the end of an evening’s work at The Conservatoire in Blackheath. As I’d spent most of the previous two hours sitting with a curved spine, hugging my thighs, I felt closer to the age of 82 than 12, but I was well pleased to see all the art produced. We’d started with three 1-minute poses…
5 and 10-minute poses came next, first standing with hands round my head, and then squatting low. This latter was becoming tough on my toes and tendons during the last few minutes but as I had woken that morning on holiday in Geneva, the discomfort at least helped keep me sharp. After a moment to recover, I was ready for the long pose. I placed a cushion beneath my sheet, sat down and held my arms behind my legs.
Tutor Victoria Rance had suggested various options for the long pose but we agreed this would work best tonight; we will pick one of the others when I return in five weeks. Nine artists had arranged themselves in a circle round me, while Victoria also painted sketches in a drawing book when not offering comments and advice. By agreement, I was given time checks every 20 minutes with the chance to have a stretch.
The session was brought to its close shortly before our scheduled finish at 10pm. The remaining time was spent in collective admiration of the artworks produced. If you had struggled to find a Picasso among the works above, the clue is it’s very early Picasso; look again at the colour pastel sketch in brown and yellow on pale orange paper. Very nice, as were all the distinctive styles on show. I look forward to coming back.
steve ritter 