My wife, in typically stoic fashion, returned to work just six weeks after giving birth to our first son. Back then, Sarah was manager of a group home for two Down’s adults on the outskirts of Swansea, so had to do shifts, which included sleep-ins. I was working as a…

Where does the time go? Why can I remember so little of it? *Paul Weller, Town Called Malice Look at that photograph. The happy smile of a fulfilled, contented dad at the end of a summer’s day. Me and all four kids in our back garden, taken by my lovely…

Five life drawings of one model I discovered Dominique soon after lockdown in the spring of 2020. An Australian living, and for the time, stranded in Amsterdam, Dominique took to running her own life drawing sessions very early on in the Zoom era. I can’t remember now how I found…

Five life drawings of one model — I am grateful that I can call William a friend. Ours is a lockdown friendship formed over Zoom and we have never met in person, he being on the east coast of the USA and me living in west Wales. Despite the ocean between us, we have found a great…

Five life drawings of one model — I only managed to draw Rebekah a handful of times before the pandemic. Sadly, she no longer poses, which is a great shame as I found her to be one of the most interesting models I’d drawn live. What impressed me most about Rebekah was her immense self confidence in…

Five life drawings of one model — Ah, Nicole. A model I have only drawn in online zoom groups, Nicole is Portuguese but also poses in London and Amsterdam. She is one of the most challenging, infuriating and rewarding models I have ever drawn. Challenging, due to the imaginative contorted poses she attempts. Infuriating, because it often…

The inexorable deadening of my senses — I feel diminished. My senses blunt. Here, in middle age, I perceive life as if from inside an old fashioned diver’s suit. My vision clouded by my breath on the glass in front of my face, my hearing dulled by the thick brass of the helmet and my fingers numbed…

Five life drawings of one model — My enjoyment of drawing Ben has always slightly baffled me. Although he is pleasant and friendly he can give the impression of being the most morose, unambitious model, but there is something about him that always works for me. His poses are never dynamic and his demeanour is generally subdued…

A committed man As he finally got home the sun was beginning to tease at the skirts of dawn. Another Friday night lock-in and another ‘shift’ done behind the rugby club bar. At his age he wondered how much longer he could keep doing it, not that there was anything…