Challenges

The first job outside of Edinburgh this year, and the first with one of my newest tutors.  I was based at the Stateside Bar in Glasgow's Merchant City and was working with Claire Patterson.  She was a great tutor and we worked very well together, so I'm really looking forward to doing so again.  She had hired me earlier in the year to do some photographic modelling for her.  It was good to return the favour and hire her right back.

Things didn't go completely smoothly this time.  I arrived four hours early because I wanted to make sure various challenges had been taken care of and I wanted to have the time to cope with them if they weren't.  And right away, I was confronted with a venue that comprised of a wide open balcony overlooking a market square that was expected to be very busy - with clear views of anything that was going on.  There were supposed to be screens in place, but they weren't there, the manager who had hired me the venue was no longer working there and nobody even knew I was supposed to have a class there.  This has taught me the value of checking up and making sure that agreements are still understood when a deadline for a class draws near.

So I had to rapidly improvise and set about transforming a wide-open space into somewhere an art class with a naked male model could take place.  A quick visit to a nearby department store and a nearby hardware store provided me with bungee clips, cord and some sheets, though - and an hour later, I'd rigged up a "washing line".  By the time I was finished, I still had two hours to spare, so I went to meet Claire and take her back to the bar.

When the girls arrived, I wasn't able to do my preferred introduction because there was nowhere to hide.  Instead, I stood and waited for them all to arrive and so got the individual responses as Claire led them through the makeshift screens one-by-one.

An interesting addition, though, was that one girl had a video-camera and so was also able to capture the responses on film.  I always make it known that any pictures of these events are very welcome and can be used to illustrate the postings on this blog if the girls are happy to share them.  The usual address for the pictures is Farquhar1970@AOL.Com.

But a personal request to this particular group... I would love a copy of the film as well though, if it's possible to get one and if you're happy to share it.  It would make the perfect illustration for this particular posting.

Back to the class.  Claire was a perfect tutor.  She engaged the girls well and knew exactly when to offer tuition and when to back off and just enjoy the banter.  She set some fun drawing challenges and offered some good tips.  I've never been able to draw at all, but I could see that she would make an excellent tutor at more serious art classes as well - one girl started off very hesitant and unsure of what to do, but "graduated" the class with far more skill.  I could see her confidently sketching out a great drawing during the last pose of the event.

We finished with the usual round of photographs and took our time leisurely winding the class down.  Then I got dressed, the washing line was taken down, the sheets were put away and we headed out to the West End of Glasgow for the next event.

A final "fun" moment for this class...  I borrowed a knife from the bar kitchen to cut down the cord line, but forgot that I had used a bungee at each end to put it up in the first place, so it was under pressure from both ends.  When I cut the cord, I heard a cry of surprise and looked round.  The cord was all the way over at the other end of the balcony and Claire was standing back, looking slightly startled.  Luckily, the cord had missed her.  Decapitating a tutor is not generally a good start to a working relationship.