Seeing Double

Last Friday was the last life drawing session for the year and for the second month in a row we had a couple pose for us. There was no need for heaters as it was broiling hot and most of the windows in our art room don't open so it wasn't long before we were all sweating and sighing. Finally someone remembered that we actually have a ceiling fan so this was turned on to everyone's relief including the models.

Our models have posed before for art students and enjoy thinking up difficult poses to prematurely age us. They quipped that they knew we were challenged because the room fell quiet without our usual chatter. In a couple of cases there was only time to pare down the subject to gestural poses which I think worked more successfully than the longer drawings.

We had started at 9.30am so we could end earlier as we'd booked in for our Christmas lunch at the Paper Mulberry Cafe. Our models came along and in a strange case of serendipity we met another of our life models in there as well. The Paper Mulberry has two advantages to other cafes in the area: there is a good gallery showing local art, a small shop stocking local produce and a second hand bookshop out the back of the building. The second advantage is the food is excellent and served in generous portions which means that when you order a mug of hot chocolate you also get a marshmallow and small chocolate fish! That's enough incentive for anyone I would think....