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Emma Chance is a brave soul. Baring all to a group of strangers, she stays motionless for long periods of time so they can draw her from every conceivable angle.

Rather than being embarrassed or uncomfortable Emma is happy to pose because she herself is an artist who has drawn nude models.

The artists draw a variety of poses

She said, "It's fine because I've been on the other side and I've done the drawing and I'm used to it. The first initial taking off your dressing gown can sometimes be a bit intimidating but you just get used to it. Everyone's professional so it just feels comfortable."

Emma was modelling at a series of life-drawing sessions where artists of all abilities can turn up at Bridport Arts Centre and draw a live model.

Looking not drawing

Among them was Suna Morrisey from Bridport who declared that "there's no other way to learn how to draw." She said, "You learn more about juxtaposition of parts the body and it teaches you to really look, which you're actually doing, you're not drawing you're looking."

The sessions are run by Abbotsbury based artist John Meaker who fears that life drawing is a dying art and feels strongly that the skill should be kept alive especially as many art schools appear to be giving it up.

Thea Martin, got into art after being a model

He said, "There's nowhere else where you're going to get disciplined drawing apart from in the life room really of that kind of intensity of analytical involvement of what you're looking at."

The sessions attract all sorts of artists from professionals and amateurs to degree and A level students who need to expand their portfolios. They're particularly popular because there aren't many opportunities to paint a nude model partly because there aren't many people prepared to do it.

Physically demanding

That might explain why many of the models John recruits for his life sessions are artists themselves. Thea Martin from Bridport is a regular at the sessions but only turned to art after a stint as a model. She started modelling to find out what it was like to pose, because she wanted to write a feature about it.

Having plucked up the courage to do it once, she found this was a good way of supplementing her income even though at times it's hard to stay so still. She said, "It's the long poses when you start really feeling the pain of being really still."

John Meaker tends to choose younger models simply because the artists prefer it that way and because it's quite physically demanding.

The artists draw a variety of poses

He said, "I'm afraid I may look prejudiced but I like to have a model that looks like a classical figure, and most important for that is agility. Not necessarily youth but health."

Bridport's artistic tradition dates back to the 19th Century when a thriving arts school was established. The painter and designer Charles Rennie Macintosh came to the town to draw and teach.

Today the town is host to a huge range of professional and amateur artists which is perhaps why the life drawing sessions are so popular and may be why in Bridport at least it isn't that hard to find individuals who are prepared to bare all for art.