Sick of feeling self-conscious in the swimming pool change-rooms, Bonnici decided to confront his inhibitions and become a life drawing model.

Last Peek Life Drawing was born. Bonnici now runs seven different classes on fortnightly and monthly rotations at the Northcote Town Hall and has 400 people on his mailing list. He even runs corporate classes for office workers and saucy scribble sessions for hen’s nights.

For Bonnici, the classes aren’t just fun – they’re life-changing. Before starting the business, he spent more than 12 years working in IT, stuck in a daily grind cluttered with cables and computer screens. “I just went through a stage in my life where I wanted to challenge myself,” he says. “I thought, before you know it, you’re going to be 40 and go, ‘Where did my life go?’ Some people don’t challenge themselves, but some do, because they want to get that spark back.”

Determined to reignite his own spark, Bonnici set a personal challenge every 12 months – a kind of perpetual New Year’s resolution – from completing fun runs to trying his hand at body-building. But it was the life-drawing experiment that stuck.

As a former model, he is particularly fussy about who he hires. “I try to get all different types of models: young women, older women, white men, dark African males.”

One of Bonnici’s most popular models was a woman who was seven months pregnant. “That was a crazy session. We had 28 bookings, but in the end, 37 people turned up,” he says. With nearly 40 people packed into one room on a hot summer’s day – and a busted airconditioner, no less – Bonnici says he was surprised the model didn’t go into premature labour. ‘‘But that’s OK, I’ve got insurance with the Northcote Town Hall,” he adds. For Bonnici, the greatest pleasure comes from seeing his students enjoy two whole hours away from email updates, phone calls and Facebook. “It’s just nice to see a whole bunch of strangers just enjoying each other’s company.You do get to see small little groups form, and sometimes it’s the oddest combinations, like a married older person chatting away with a local single girl.”

A retired local artist called Joy is one of his most loyal pupils and regularly attends the fortnightly Saturday class despite being well into her 80s.

Bonnici admires her dedication to her passion. “Who knows, I might be still running these classes when I’m 80.”