I left home last night to rejoin the life-drawing class I attended for some time before the pandemic put a stop to such things …. in a snow storm. It was wonderful to get back to the classes again, to meet with people I’ve missed, and to feel that we are that little bit closer to something recognisable as “normality”. The class was (as you might expect in the light of the above remark) anything but normal.
To say that the model was “clothed” would be an under-estimate. I didn’t enquire but I suspect that everybody present was (like me) equipped with thermal underwear. I was very glad that I had taken the fingerless gloves I wear when I am climbing in cold weather. Current restrictions on meeting meant that the class was held out of doors. The tutor had arranged to have a large domed pergola under which we met, with temporary lighting. The young woman who modelled for us is to be commended particularly for her stoicism, as she is from the south of Spain! We all became a little giggly, and I suspect that in a couple of cases this might have had to do with surreptitious hip-flasks. It was, I have to admit, a memorable occasion, and I am really rather surprised at the quality of what we all managed to produce in the circumstances.
To the relief of all of us, I’m sure, we will be back indoors from next week.