Life drawing meetups 'a meditative experience' for these P.E.I. artists

Michelangelo's David, Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and Botticelli's The Birth of Venus are some of the most recognizable artworks of all time — and they all have one thing in common.

Nudity.

While it may elicit giggles from some, the naked human body has a more than 35,000-year-long history in art.

Its form, muscles and movement are something great artists have studied for generations, and some are still doing so here on P.E.I.

"I still have butterflies in my belly every time I undo the knot in my robe," says Wayne Crouse, a longtime life drawing model. "Because you're really putting yourself 100 per cent on display,"

Each Sunday, about a dozen artists gather at the Gertrude Cotton Centre in Stratford. They set up their easels, pull out their pencils or paints, and focus their attention on the live model in the middle of the room.

Then the model takes off their robe.

"The biggest challenge is to actually be centre stage in a room where you're the only one just wearing a smile," says Crouse.

The life drawing meetups have been going on for more than two decades, and have been at their current Bunbury Road location for the past 10 years. Artists attending each contribute $10 to pay the models.

Modelling for Island artists is something Crouse stumbled into by chance almost 20 years ago. He recalls needing some extra cash, and seeing an ad in the paper that the Confederation Centre was offering a two-day life drawing workshop.

"And I thought, 'Hey, I could do that,'" he recalls. But when asked if it's as easy as he thought it would be, Crouse laughs, "Hell no!"

He said the hardest part is holding a single pose for between 20 and 40 minutes.

"Our legs go to sleep, our arms go to sleep, we lose circulation," he explains. "It can be very painful."

But Crouse says over time, he's learned what his body is — and isn't — capable of.