Garrett Centre, London, 29 June 2018

Having ended a longer-than-usual absence from Adrian Dutton’s life drawing groups on Monday, the next booking for him came just four days later at the Garrett Centre. I’d not been here since 1 November last year – this evening was altogether sunnier.

Sunny it may have been, but we would be working in one of the basement community rooms. Familiar faces were on the scene as I arrived and took position in a horseshoe of chairs. This was a long-pose session but we started with three 5-minute warm-ups.

For the long pose itself I chose a seated position with an arm outstretched across one knee – I’ve used it countless times, but never here and never for more than 30-minutes at a time. Here I would hold it first for 41-minutes, and then another hour after a break.

Mercifully, it sustained fairly well. An early dull aching between my outstretched elbow and shoulder had me worried, but didn’t last. Only a numbness in my supporting hand needed shaking out a couple of times during the latter half. So in all, I think: success!