"I’m on a personal crusade to get everyone to draw,” artist Jake Spicer admits. As the brains behind the Brighton Life Drawing Sessions, Spicer has hosted classes in a museum of taxidermy, all-nighters with poses based on cards from the tarot deck and tomorrow, he launches a day of artistic pursuits based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Throwing aside the traditional life drawing set-up, seven models in an array of top hats and other costumes will be dotted about the studio in New England House, holding different poses inspired by Arthur Rackham’s Alice illustrations.

“People can stand or sit on the floor and draw whatever they can see unfolding in front of them,” Spicer explains.

“I think people often feel a lot of pressure in a life class to produce a nice little drawing of a nude but this isn’t about that. It’s going to be a much freer space where people can just sit and doodle if they want to.”

The models (most of whom are artists, writers, actors and musicians themselves – Spicer thinks it’s important they have an empathy with those they are sitting for) will eventually come together to form a tableaux, until the whole thing turns into a real-life tea party the artists can take part in. Those attending are advised to bring “drawing and painting materials, cakes, sandwiches and tea time foods”.

Of his unusual approach to drawing practice, Spicer says: “I think it’s nice to have some sort of reason to be drawing. Life drawing can become a bit arbitrary if you always do it in a similar way. Having a narrative to inform your drawing makes it feel more engaging and inspiring.”

Funds raised through Curiouser And Curiouser will go towards The Cinderella Project: Lucien, a show Spicer is staging with Sabotage Theatre at the Brighton Fringe next month. “It’s an immersive, 45-minute experience that blurs the boundaries between art exhibition and theatre performance,“ he explains. “Told from the perspective of ‘artist’ Lucien, the audience will watch him painting live in the studio. A radio play will be broadcast as he paints which tells the story of each artwork.

“The exhibition will evolve over the two weeks the show is on, so no one audience group will see the same thing. There are only eight audience members at a time so it should be a very personal experience.”

Using New England House as the location was partly a practical decision, but Spicer says the high-rise business centre is an integral part of the story. “The artist is being held in a prison and forced to create artwork. Travelling up to his studio in one of the big, clunking industrial lifts is the perfect introduction to the piece.”

*11am-5pm, £12. For more information, or to book, email info@jakespicerart.co.uk or call 07805 201057. The Cinderella Project: Lucien takes place three times a day from May 15-22. Entry is free, but tickets must be booked. Visit www.brighton festivalfringe. org.uk.

For more information on Jake Spicer, visit www.jake spicerart.co.uk