In Praise Of Models

Today I thought I'd take a little time to discuss artist's models - they really are a wonderful group, without whom many of us artists would be unable to work.

Initially the only contact I had with models was in the life room, where the models were booked on a 8 week schedule. Something about the structure of that was rather nice, as it meant the model always seemed to have new gossip to share at tea time. Some of them liked to have a wee nosey at what we were doing, some preferred the chat, some brought in home baking and all were tremendously professional.

Anyway, recently I have progressed to hiring models on my own. They have been an absolutely lovely bunch who have been very inspiring, each in their own, individual way - Dolly Tartan as you can see, was very bouncy - but also quite capable of staying still as required. One model had a hidden dark side, while another had a lot of knowledge of what looks good on camera. Each contribution is unique and therefore each painting becomes a collaborative work - and I feel that this is often unfairly overlooked.

Museworthy is a model who works in New York that unfortunately I never had a chance to meet when I was there. However, her blog highlights the problems and joys of working as an artists model as well as discussing some of the artists models in the past and is well worth reading if you think you might ever either be a model or hire one.