By Carla Tofano
Last Friday, 4th of March, was a glorious day. I didn't have to run from one point of the city to the next - as we all busy Londoners usually have to - because on that peaceful day I only had an unmissable appointment: with The Life Drawing Collective in the church.
A few months ago we received an invitation that we couldn't resist from Anne Noble Partridge, who suggested to Andrew, Manko and myself the option of doing - in collaboration with London Drawing - a life drawing event right at the altar of St. Pancras Church.
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| The Life Drawing Collective with London Drawing artists. Photo: Jason Atomic |
Since we started as a collective, doing a session in a church was one of the greatest aims of our project, and we actually knocked the doors of a few of them without much luck. We initially thought that naked human beings will be a difficult subject to bear for an ecclesiastical institution, but now we know that pushing boundaries with the right hand, we will always get the light to shine bright.
All the preproduction steps of this very special life drawing event went relatively smoothly. And finally when the day to get rid of our clothes came, in the context of some strong evocative religious references, the session was sold out and the house of God was full of artists ready to make the most of this precious invitation. The vibes of everyone involved were channelled in the perfect frequency to make the most of an unusual occasion. That afternoon, since I came out of my flat with my little suitcase and wearing my favourite and highest high heels, I felt protected by the irreversible design of destiny, and when I first stepped inside of that magnificent building I knew that we couldn't get it wrong at all.
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| Pose testing for the church. Photo by Jason Atomic |
For an artist with a life-drawing habit it should be easy to imagine how magnificent was the chance of drawing three naked models creating dynamic physical bonds against the fabulously dramatic backdrop of St Pancras Church. Classical music was playing during the whole session, filling the atmosphere with perfect emotional ups and downs, and allowing the presence of an embracing feeling of pleasure and sensuality all around. I felt from the beginning to the end a vibrant explosion of peaceful happiness. Contradictory, isn't it? But that's exactly how I felt once I stood nude on that severe and strong table that was our pedestal to keep ourselves still while in action.
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| Carla and the Collective, by Jason Atomic |
I think it was a cold night… Anyway, I honestly did not feel it, the warm rewarding excitement that I had at heart helped me keep out of any kind of suffering. We first did a free style representation of Jesus crucifixion for 30 minutes, then Manko and I cried Jesus dead in a pose that was allegorical of La Pieta for another dramatic and very still half an hour, and after it we continued with the silent beautiful mission of being for another hour, the representational body of a human life sort of celebration.
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| The Life Drawing Collective - La Pieta at St Pancras Church. Photo by Jason Atomic |
Last Friday St. Pancras church was full of artists ready to experience a very mystical but dynamic session of theatrical modelling. And that was only possible thanks to the communion between The Life Drawing Collective and London Drawing. In itself London Drawing is a very well known collaboration between professional artists, tutors and performers, led by Anne Noble-Partridge and David Price, who had the vision of seeing how perfect this fascinating venue will be for of our multi-model style of classic art.
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The Life Drawing Collective at St Pancras Church. Photo by Jason Atomic
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Thank god, The Life Drawing Collective will be posing under celestial protection again in the near future. And if this make sense to all of those who couldn't be there on our religiously profane debut, just wait for our fleshy non-holy trinity to get back to the altar, and come to draw us.
For more photos visit the album on our FB page
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