Eastbourne House, London, 10 November 2014

I’ve been blessed with a good number of life model bookings for Adrian Dutton during 2014. He and wife Anya have a long and ever-extending roster of models they can call upon at any time, and I see this as a great motivator for keeping standards high, never getting complacent about future work. It’s a fabulous group to pose for.

My November date was set to be the final one for them this year, so it was good to go out with a bit of a blast. No fewer than 21 poses were crammed into two hours and ten minutes of energetic modelling and drawing, with a break for hot food and drinks.

As always we began at 7pm with a 10-minute pose that allowed time for latecomers to arrive. We then steamed straight into a dynamic sequence with five one-minute poses, a 30-second pose and even a 15-second pose. Steadily lengthening the time, we went 3, 3, 5, 10 and 20 minutes to the interval.

Artists were at liberty to luxuriate in as long a break as they fancied, but I was back in pose at 8:20pm so the keenest among them could recommence without undue delay. This was an open-ended seated pose that ultimately lasted 20 minutes.

With everyone settled once more we resumed with another swift burst of dynamism: 3 minutes, 2, 1, 30 seconds and 15 seconds. Finally slowing the pace, we finished with 10 minutes standing and 30 minutes in a downward kneeling stretch.

The latter was a rare grievous misjudgement. I’d used this pose twice before and been perfectly fine but this time I was on a soft deep mat, which meant there were no micro adjustments in muscle tension I could make to relieve points of stress or pressure; all were simply absorbed by the mat.

I survived, and at the finish there was nice applause. Artists set their work on the floor for others to admire, and kind remarks were exchanged. I’m already looking forward to the next batch of bookings confirmed for 2015, and more superb Bethnal Green art.