GUSTAVO
	2 min gestures                             Hilde Lambrechts

Gustavo is one of the most wanted and appreciated models in Ottawa, by schools, life drawing groups and individual artists alike.

He was raised in a family of painters and photographers and being an art photographer himself, he knows about composition and light. He exhibited his work in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. Until 2006 he was active in the HIV community. As this work became emotionally too demanding, he felt the need to reconnect with the art community and became an artist model in 2007.

Gustavo’s short poses are extremely energetic showing a lot of movement and muscle tension in his body. His long poses are among the most difficult ones to maintain and he often uses ropes to help him keep his balance. He likes to push himself to the limit because he feels this is necessary for the artist. He finds sitting poses physically most demanding due to pressure points, which will hurt in the end. Sitting for a portrait is most demanding for his mind: focusing on one point makes him sleepy and with light shining in his eyes, he finds it difficult to look natural. But he always does.

Despite the overall difficulty of his poses, Gustavo can pull off anything and he has the ability to remain very still. He sees his model work as performance art and he continuously renews his repertoire which makes him truly the cream of the crop.