Old Lady Who Came With

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When I was in high school I took croquis classes at the Fleisher Art Memorial.  I went once a week to the evening class and drew the nude models.  One week I arrived in good time and set up my materials and waited for the model.  After awhile a man walked into the studio wearing only a shirt.  

I had never had a male model before.  I looked around and realized that I was the only female in the room.  Was I supposed to be there?  Were the men afraid to embarrass me by telling me I shouldn’t be there?  I was paralyzed — afraid to leave and afraid to stay.  

After what seemed a very long time another female came in and sat down to draw.   Then I got to draw my first male nude.

I went back to Fleisher off and on over the years.  I wasn’t always very interested in the models or the poses they took but found ways around that by drawing an engaging head or interesting hand gestures. 

There were regulars who came to draw each week.  One was an older man who brought his wife with him.  Apparently he was unable to leave her at home as she would forget where he’d gone and would become frightened.  So he brought her with him and she sat at one of the drawing tables reading magazines.

She sat quietly only occasionally moving her hands to turn magazine pages or touch her face.  She was a delicate figure that I found myself watching.  And then drawing.  She was the old lady who came with.

About the book:  The original drawings were mounted in a book made of black paper with small pieces of white artists tape.  The book pages were scanned and in the small edition that followed, the drawing and its black surround were printed on a white paper.