Here she is modeling the heart-shaped fruit of a Japanese Climbing Cucumber plant that grows in a pot on her porch. I am lucky that our friendship has continued through the years, and that she enjoys posing for me now and then. I first met Peggy in an exercise class over 10 years ago. After we’d gotten to know each other well enough, I asked if she would pose for a painting I was working on. It was her profile that I wanted to copy: straight nose, high cheek bones, long neck. She enjoyed sitting for me, and after that experience went on to do more modeling for our nearby college art department. She is such a wonderful model, because she can stick a pose and hold it until the timer goes off. (Artists tend to lose track of time when engrossed, so a wise model utilizes a clock.) I believe it is Peggy’s yoga practice and knowing her own body that helps her settle into long poses. She is able to meditate or become lost in thought, even as she’s aware of the the bustling of artists at work: the scratch of drawing tools, creaks of easels and stools, sighs of exasperation! She stays cool as a cucumber.
Heart-shaped Cucumber
