The last five months have been a challenge for everybody. The virus hasn’t completely gone away, but we’re now seem to be approaching some form of normality again.
There is understandably a large degree of of hesitancy and concern about resuming weddings and hen parties planning, but I’ve seen signs that this is happening now. I have as well seen a number of postponements without specific new dates. Another variation again applies my first hen party life drawing class since lockdown. The wedding was postponed to next year, but they decided to have the hen party once the unlocking happened.
The hen party was in Herefordshire. Having run many hen party life drawing and bodypainting classes around Hereford, I was pretty sure I’d previously been to the venue that they were staying. As a result, I didn’t ask for the post code prior to travelling. I just typed the venue name into google maps at let it guide me to them.
West Country Redneck
As the SatNav indicated that I was arriving at the venue, I began to worry that it wasn’t the right place. I was led up a narrow, uneven and steep road with no signs for ‘The Cider Barn’.
The tarmac had come to an end but I continue for a while. I reached a parking area for a farm which was further up a hill. I decided that this was the time to turn around. As I turned around, there was a man standing next to my car.
He didn’t look too pleased to see me. I must say that he wouldn’t have looked out of place as an extra from the film Deliverance.
I opened the window, and I realised that we was agitated and not quite playing with a full deck of cards… He circled the car from a distance a number of times and mumbled something about me not supposed to be there. I managed to somehow turn around as he was moving and I accelerated as much as I could on that narrow path to get out of there.
Arriving at the Cider Barn
After that worrying encounter, I phoned the Maid of Honour and sister of the Bride. She gave me the post code and I realised that it was on the other side of Hereford. The SatNav now told me that I was 40 minutes away from the correct Cider Barn! After car troubles and narrow roads prior to lockdown (please read previous blog story) I thought this one would be smooth, but alas it was a little stressful again – as I hate being late.
The group were luckily fine about me being a bit late. They were happily drinking wine in the garden in front of the lovely house that they were actually staying in.
By this time, the Bride to Be knew about the activity so there was no surprise and she welcomed me warmly. They all came into the old barn house which had beautiful low beams in the lounge/dining area where we got going with the art.
Over the previous four months of lockdown, I hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone in the flesh (apart from people in the supermarket) so it felt quite exciting and fresh to be nude in front of 14 gorgeous ladies.
Life Drawing and Body Painting
Two and a half hours flew by very quickly. There was a number of ladies in the group that were experienced at drawing and the others were really new and enthusiastic converts to sketching.
I’ve kept with the same format for my events for the past few years as I have found that it works really well in terms of the flow of things. We start with the most traditional ‘gesture poses’ where I model and teach the group some basic drawiing techniques. We then move on to some more hen party orentated activities which involve members of the group working in teams together.
We then finished with a little body painting, where the group happily painted my body with some colourful doodles and designs.
Despite my arriving at the wrong location and the run in with the local hillbilly, it was a fun afternoon. According to the feedback (see message from Fran), the group also enjoyed themselves.
New bookings are now in my diary for September, October and November, so if you’re interested get in touch for a quote.
