I have often said that when modelling nude for life drawing groups it doesn’t matter to me whether there’s one or one-hundred artists present. Thus far that lower end of the scale hasn’t been put to the test but for a while at this session it looked a possibility. Come the 7:30pm start time, only me and organiser-artist-friend Frances had pitched up at the Telegraph Hill Centre. Truly summer is a quiet time in the life art world.
Frances asked if it would be OK if we went ahead anyway and she could simply draw me herself. We’ve known each other long enough for this to be no problem, but before we had chance to make it a private sitting we were joined by another artist; and along came a third when we were already well into the second pose – we’d become a group. For variety, Frances asked if I would mind opening it with a 5-minute kneeling pose.
Nude as I was, it seemed most poses were used as practice for portrait drawing. We continued: 5-minutes, 10, 15, and 15-minutes up to a tea break, then a single seated 40-minute pose to the end. There has always been a pleasant, laid-back, mellow vibe about Life Drawing@Telegraph Hill. I’ll be hoping to see it returned to full numbers once the midsummer lull has passed.
Drawing the Star at The Star by Hackney Downs is firmly established as one of my favourite life art groups. The poses are snappy and dynamic, the artists make superb works, and the upstairs room is both characterful and comfortable – especially during these light summer evenings. Moreover, there’s always pleasant chat before we start, during the interval, and afterwards over drinks.
There’s only one drawback for me: the session lasts only an hour and a half. Most of my bookings are for two hours, two and a half, or three hours; such a pity that one of the sweetest is also one of the briefest. Then again, perhaps that’s not a coincidence. Who knows? This session at least was made all the sweeter for having Esther come along to practice her drawing. I’m overdue to return the compliment.
Pose lengths followed a familiar format: 5-minutes, 4, 3, 2, three of 1-minute, three of 30-seconds(!) and two of 10-minutes up to a break. Afterwards the preference was to have two 15-minute poses rather than a single long one to the end. I stood, sat, knelt, and ranged about within a horseshoe of artists whilst organiser Catherine Hall called the times and kept the pace lively.
No aches and pains, no numbness, no coldness, no interruptions, no bureaucracy, no discomfort whatsoever, just a satisfying session resulting in some nice art – not least the Egon Schiele-style drawing in pink, and Catherine’s own vivid watercolours in red and yellow. After a fortnight in which we mostly felt desolation at the UK’s referendum vote to leave the EU, it was a relief to set aside the gloom… if only for 90-minutes.
Such anticipation for this session! And little wonder as it combined two of my favourite things: modelling for The Moon and Nude at The Old Dairy – a superb venue – and duo poses with my beloved Esther. We’d worked together for The Moon and Nude four days earlier at The Finborough Arms, and had a booking on the Monday too, at The Sun in Clapham, only for it to be cancelled due to the vagaries of international football. But this one, for me, was the one to relish.
Our poses would be timed at 10-minutes, 10-minutes, 15-minutes and 15-minutes up to a break, then half-hour to the evening’s end. For all our experience as solo models, we continue to learn about our bodies in close-contact duo poses – for example, how to manage our burdens of weight and balance against each other, and how to protect ourselves from numbness. What might seem to be a form of soft eroticism is actually a series of delicate exercises in physical mindfulness.
Yet despite our awareness of the challenge, we cannot resist abandoning all care and throwing ourselves into poses with spontaneous vigour. The opening one was a typical example as we knitted our bodies together in a judo-like clinch. The second pose was slightly more gentle as we both stood and I cradled Esther’s buttocks. The third pose, however, went all wrong. We maintained it well for the artists, but Esther knew almost immediately that she’d picked a bad position for herself.
It looked innocuous, but for nearly quarter of an hour Esther lost the circulation to her left leg. She was a bit shaky when finally she stood at the end, to the extent that she might even have whited-out. After pausing for three or four minutes, we continued in a sensible manner that allowed full recovery, with Esther laying comfortably on the floor and me beside her, cradling her head and holding her hand. It actually made for quite a beautiful pose, despite the circumstances.
For the final half-hour we both lay down head to tail. with limbs linked. It was an easy pose to sustain, affording good views from all sides for the artists who surrounded us. Without that brief scare in the middle, this would have been the wholly divine session I’d hoped for. Friendly artists created works far superior than my camera records, and it was lovely to see The Moon and Nude organisers, too. I hope we can do it all again at The Sun some time soon… football permitting.
My friend Natansky is rarely content simply to participate; sooner or later she will feel compelled to organise. Within two years of her first London Naked Bike Ride she was organising a fresh start, at Tower Hill. Having both trained in photography and been a photo model, she started co-organising collaborative Arty Shoots. Through being part of ‘Public Bodies‘ outdoor guerilla-style shoots organised by Matt Granger, she was inspired to begin her own ‘Project Naked‘. So after several years’ life modelling it was inevitable she would eventually have her own life drawing group.
Together with her sister, Estelle, Nat has taken over the running of regular sessions at Fairkytes Art Centre in Hornchurch. The previous (male) organiser had never booked male life models, having once had a “bad experience”, so it was something of a minor breakthrough moment when I was booked to be their first nude man. None of the eight artists seemed phased by the prospect, however. Indeed, they were all friendly, merry and talkative right from the outset.
As an opening challenge for them, Nat called for four poses of 2.5-minutes, conveying a different emotion each time: angry, happy, sad, calm. I hadn’t been expecting to test my acting skills but it was a fun icebreaker – I snarled fiercely, stood open-armed with joy, bowed my melancholy head, and finished cross-legged in a lotus position. Slightly more conventional poses of 10-minutes and 20-minutes took us up to an interval of tea and assorted biscuits.
For our second half the artists decided on poses of 20-minutes and 25-minutes rather than a single long pose taking us to close of play. I asked if they might like to choose my postures; they opted for one seated pose and one standing. Good-natured banter continued through to the end of the evening, making it a particular pleasant gathering to be among. Male nudity had presented no problems for them. I was pleased to have rehabilitated my gender.
Esther and I finished our drinks at the Troubadour pub, in Old Brompton Street, and walked round the corner to The Finborough Arms. We prefer Troubadour for a quiet drink as it doesn’t have a TV blasting out a constant stream of live sports; for us, the magic of The Finborough Arms lies downstairs in The Cellar, which hosts a film club, open mic nights, live music and – now on Saturday afternoons – life drawing.
We’d both posed here individually for The Moon and Nude at their Sunday evening slots, but now we were honoured to have been booked together for their first session at the new time of 3pm on Saturday. Aless and Mandy were organising, and already had set out drawing materials for the artists, along with a table for cheese and wine. Seven artists joined us by the time we started our poses of 10, 15 and 20-minutes.
The football fans upstairs were making a racket, watching Switzerland play Poland at Euro 2016. Downstairs all was serene, however, as we concluded after the break with poses of 15-minutes (a reverse Pietà) and 45-minutes (seated hip-to-hip). The artists were happy and so were we. Hopefully the numbers will pick up and this will become established as another great group on the London life drawing circuit.
I’d been booked again for successive Wednesday sessions at Morley College, and this one was part two of two. The previous week I started off with short poses, then commenced a long pose that I would resume this evening. We changed it a little this time around, beginning with two poses of 15-minutes rather than three of 10-minutes; angles and Schiele-esque positioning were again the desired qualities.
For the second pose I adopted arm positions direct from one of Schiele’s works but it may not have been noted. More directly in our collective awareness was the college’s head of department who was present with us to ‘assess’ the group’s tutor, Gillian. I’ve never heard the artists – all mature – express anything other than full appreciation for Gillian’s approach, but these are routine rituals that beset our modern institutions.
After the warm-ups, we got the furniture and me as close as we could to the positions of last week’s long pose, whilst the artists did likewise with their easels and materials. Some resumed works, others started afresh, but all were attentive to their method and composition. I sat for about 90 minutes, with a coffee break and a couple of stretches. As ever, I found the finished works diverse and strong. Hope to be back in autumn.
I’d made my first appearance at Morley College over two successive Wednesdays in March, and was back for more of the same this month. Once again I was working for a group of five students, plus their tutor, Gillian. Once again the plan was to start off with short poses and then hold a single long pose that I would resume the next week. After some debate, it was decided I should begin with three poses of 10-minutes each.
Gillian was quite clear that she wanted angles and twists, with Egon Schiele being the familiar reference. I am used to this and grateful that tutors and group organisers see the potential in me as it brings me regular bookings. Even so, twists and angles equal pain, and I can’t help but be envious of colleagues with a fuller-figure for whom the request can be just comfort and curves – no disrespect to hard-working models!
My third pose of the session – sitting down with one knee raised and hands locked in an arch – was well received, so I was asked to provide a modified version as my main pose. I found a sustainable equivalent and settled down, first for half-an-hour up to our coffee break, and then another 55-minutes to a close. By the end of the evening there were already some strong compositions emerging.
Work on this pose would be finished next week so Gillian took reference photos as an aid to getting both me and the moveable furniture back in position. To be continued…
steve ritter 