Eastbourne House, London, 9 June 2016

I particularly enjoyed this session. I have modelled at Eastbourne House in Bethnal Green many times; it is a wonderful space in which to pose for dozens of artists, but the pleasure of working on any given evening has as much to do with its atmosphere, the ambience, artistic inspiration and my personal mood. All that this evening lacked was its organiser, Adrian Dutton, who was away on personal business. On the plus side, however, it was great to see his partner, Anya, temporarily back at the helm.

Anya attended to finances and catering, while responsibility for timing my poses was handed to Gareth, an experienced artist and regular here. Adrian normally calls out a particular length of time then leaves me to choose the pose, but Gareth had ideas of his own that I was happy to try. After a pose of 10-minutes, and four of 2-minutes, he called for four identical-but-rotated 5-minute poses at all four corners of the space. A 15-minute pose closed the first half.

Thursday nights here are cheese and wine nights, and come the interval I made sure I was first to grab a measure of both before the artists descended like locusts. With the space fleetingly empty, I took a leisurely wander around to admire works that were left on chairs and the floor. The standard was pleasingly high. After some amiable chatter, Gareth asked if I would mind informally starting the second half with an unannounced 5-minute pose. I obliged.

We ended the session with 15-minutes and 10-minutes in similar stances at opposite corners of the space, followed by 30-minutes on my back with both forearms and one knee raised up. I could have gladly nodded off during this final one, and only the need to keep my hands in position prevented me from doing so. Many estimable drawings were created. It had been a pleasure to work for Anya and Gareth, and I look forward to resuming with Adrian in September.