Catching up from the Atelier

A day trip to Ghent with new friends.

It was probably ambitious to think I’d write weekly in a month of sitting for six hours every day, five days each week, and then using my afternoons and days off to explore Belgium. So: I survived the month of modelling in Bruges.

On one hand, the modelling itself was as you might expect: ‘I sit, they paint,’ I wrote to my mom.

Bill Whittaker’s stunning – and rapid – portrait of me, done in about 4 hours.

But in fact, there is a lot going on – in my head, in conversation, and especially in Bill’s teaching. All of this, I wrote down as notes for what will become ‘The Naked Muse,’ my non-fiction reflections on this experience, combined with my five years of past modelling experiences.

So instead of writing about that here, I thought I’d put up a few more pictures of exploring, a few artworks by the wonderful people I met, and say how much I recommend a holiday to the quirky, waffel-filled, pocket-sized, picture-perfect city of Bruges, where I was privileged to live for a month.

Something that’s pretty exciting right now is that my writing of ‘The Naked Muse’ book has been interrupted, because a publisher has asked to see the first two chapters of the non-fiction travel memoir I proposed to them about my Vespa adventures to, and in, the South of France. I’m calling it ‘Vespa for Beginners’.

Amazingly large stork nest in Sluis, the Netherlands, where I cycled twice, the second time with Leslie Duke & Meghan & Brian Sours.

I want to thank my blog readers for this, because I hadn’t thought of the journey itself as something to write about until I began to tell people what I was doing, and they asked me to blog so they could read about the trip. So, it might become a book! Here’s hoping.

It was awfully silly that it hadn’t occurred to me, really, since I try to turn everything into a book. And you’ll be pleased to hear that I still need to collect Vespa from Les Adrets, and have booked the return trip for the end of September – so stay tuned for Episode II…

Brilliant illustration of me reading Jane Eyre, by Meghan Sours.

There’s quite a lot of book-related stuff fizzing and bubbling right now, actually, and it’s all come up in the past week. I’m going to keep mum until there’s anything concrete, however, and we know how long that can take. It may be heartening to hear that it involves two novels I’d ‘shelved,’ so though I don’t know what will happen, it’s nice to think that old work mightn’t be dead.

I could say the situation ‘has great potential,’ but then I’d sound like I work for Foxtons. And I could say ‘fingers crossed,’ but really, we’re all writing and typing and that would be awkward. Sometimes it feels like I’ve built a house of cards: it could fall and reveal a solid, pleasing little structure, or it could fall, and there will be nothing underneath.

Because people tend to have difficulty recognising me, I can look so different (I should be a spy) – a photo from two days ago, after my haircut!

So this may be a bit of a post where I’m not saying much, only to say I’m off to Bulgaria tomorrow, where it’s supposed to be awfully hot and sunny, and I’m glad for that. But I have missed rainy, grey London, and I’ll look forward to being back for a stretch, and hopefully to having more to share, and hopefully seeing some of you, whom I know, in person. Meanwhile, good luck writing, reading, etc!

Week one at the Atelier

Gate to the Flemish Classical Atelier.

Last Friday, I took my first journey on the Eurostar to Brussels, and made the short connection to Bruges. I’ve settled in to my somewhat quirky guest house (described as ‘bohemian’ by a friend,) and I’ve worked for one week so far as a model for the Flemish Classical Atelier down the road. The gig is for the month of June.

We’ve fixed on a pose that may last the entire month: I’m seated, with a robe just off of my shoulders, my hands holding it closed in front of me, my back supported by the chair. It is comfortable but not so comfortable that I’m struggling to stay awake (except for that time about half an hour after I eat lunch…)

Building which is home to the Atelier.

There are six students in the class, one of whom organises the Atelier. There is a guest artist who is teaching the class, William Whitaker – Bill. He’s an absolutely lovely guy, and sets the tone for the rest of us; I must say this is an exceptionally pleasant group – polite, mostly laid-back, fairly quiet. Diverse enough to be interesting but also comfortable hanging out together or doing what we’d like on our own. It’s quite peaceful so far.

Over the first few days – half of Saturday and all of Sunday – everyone was settling in, setting things up, running back and forth to the art shop down the road, and discussing poses with me.

I spent Sunday modelling nude, but the studio was (is) freezing and the space heaters simply weren’t enough of a heat source in the huge, dark room. I was exhausted.

The pose.

We scrapped that idea and set me up with an electric blanket! Thank goodness. Bill emphasised right away that I had to be comfortable and warm, for my own sake, and also because they can’t have their model catching pneumonia.

I feel cared for in a way that a precious commodity might be handled. ‘Get some rest’ is a phrase I hear quite a bit. ‘Bill wouldn’t want you to be tired.’

Bill discussing natural light: the key to painting like the Old Masters.

It feels odd to need to look after myself for my looks; to some extent, my brains probably don’t matter very much in this situation. That said, I’ve been able to have some excellent conversations with Bill and some of the students about their thoughts on art. My own knowledge (not about art, but about other things – like how theories of child development might have influenced 18th c paintings of baby Jesus) – is something I can keep to myself or share as I wish.

I’m writing many notes about this experience, and hope to shape it into a more formal non-fiction piece; hence my brevity here.

Work-in-progress by Laura Post.
http://laurapostart.com/

Today was my first day off, and I went to the Groening Museum, meeting Bill and his wife and a few of the students. It was excellent to go around and hear Bill’s thoughts on the paintings, especially his appreciation for Jan Van Eyck.

Afterwards, I went to lunch with a few of the students who’d joined us – there are six students of all ages; the youngest is 27, exactly my age, and the oldest are just about 50; we think Bill’s in his 70s. Oddly, everyone, from the woman who lives here and runs the Atelier, all but one student, Bill, and myself, is American. How did we end up in Bruges? One student is from Manchester, England. So, not a particularly exotic bunch, but friendly.

Work-in-progress by Leslie Duke.
http://www.lesliedukeart.com/

Bruges is a pocket-sized city, and fantastically walk-able, but tricky, too. I got completely lost this morning trying to find the Groening Museum, even though I’d walked there a few days before. I’ve spent my evenings going for wonderful long rambles, to stretch my legs and move, after sitting from 9 -12:30 in the morning and 2 – 5 in the afternoons. I sit in 20-minute blocks with 5-minute breaks.

It’s going well so far, and I think it’s important that I do yoga stretches between poses, and go for walks in the evenings. It stays light here until 10 or 11pm, so it feels like the afternoons are extraordinarily long.

Work-in-progress by Meghan Sours.
http://meghansours.com/

I’m hoping to learn Bruges well, and I’d been navigating confidently. I must look like a local because people keep asking me for directions if they’re tourists & speaking to me in Dutch if they’re locals.

The city must have felt I’d become overly confident, because I was about a block away from the museum this morning, walking all around it but not finding it, for nearly half an hour, with two different maps, ready to burst into tears. I think the city is a trickster like that, because I’ve noticed many lost-looking tourists and overheard not a few tense spats about directions. My evening walks are wonderful and stress-free, because Bruges works if you don’t need to strictly navigate it. Just walk, and you’ll end up where you’re going eventually. But if you try to navigate & need to be there at a certain time? Forget it. Thank goodness the Atelier is five minutes from my house!

Once I finally found the museum, I had a lovely day.

I’ve taken some photos of a few of the works-in-progress by some of the students/painters in the workshop. It’s amazing to see the variety of styles and the progress they’re making in even one week.

The Extraordinary Unpredictability (Part II)

The naked muse is back...

Yesterday I had a phone call from the person running the Flemish Classical Atelier. Let us call this person ‘Sam’. Throughout our correspondence, I’d assumed that Sam was a man, so I was quite surprised that the voice on the other end of the line was very definitely female, with American traces to boot! Sam is a woman who was born and raised Stateside, and now lives in the countryside outside of Bruges.

She explained that because they had not been certain whether they would run the July course, she had wanted me to feel free to make other plans. Now, though, they were certainly running the course, and she really wanted to work with me if I was still interested and available (because of my ‘classical body type’ and my experience modelling).

An additional caveat to this proposal was that Sam was having trouble arranging a place for me to stay in Bruges, so how would I feel about living with her & her husband in one of their spare bedrooms in the countryside outside of Bruges, and she and I could drive in together to the Atelier each day for work?

Oh, why not.

So, I am in fact going to be paid to model for the month of June in Bruges. I am taking the Eurostar for the first time ever to Brussels, and then on to Bruges, where Sam will meet me. She goes in to the Atelier every single day, and I have two days off per week (Friday & Saturday) so I can go into town with her as I wish to play tourist on my days off.

I’ve asked her to look into borrowing a bicycle for me if that’s an option. And crucially, Sam and her husband do have internet out in the sticks.

So, that’s what I’ll be doing in July. This again pushes back me collecting Vespa from France, but I hadn’t booked any tickets for that trip, so that’s good. I’ll figure it out, and Verity is wonderful; Vespa is safely in her garage and not in her way.

I think it’s going to be an interesting summer…