The Dellow Centre, London, 23 August 2018

With warm sunshine streaming in through The Dellow Centre windows, I took off my robe, entered the round of artists, grasped a wooden stick across both shoulders, and commenced the opening 15-minute standing pose. It is a pose I enjoy and a good one to hold whilst artists are still arriving. We followed it with no fewer than 10 quick poses that began 3-minutes, 2-minutes, 1-minute, decreasing in length down to 7-seconds.

After this frenetic sequence, we completed the first half with two poses of 20-minutes each – back to basics for life drawing traditionalists, and a period of focused study for those who like to exercise their imaginations and draw more than what they see. One artist used this time to represent me as a kind of elf king, resplendent with crown and pencil sceptre; not my usual daywear…

A mug of tea and a couple of digestive biscuits later, we resumed after the break with a 5-minute movement pose. Tim, the life drawing session organiser, called out time checks every 60 seconds while I slowly, slowly, slowly turned 360°, rising, unravelling, stretching, curling, reaching. A couple of artists had murmured low groans on hearing that a movement pose was coming, but others met the challenge magnificently.

The session concluded with a 40-minute long seated pose, side-saddle on a wooden chair, twisting my torso round to the right. A 40-minute body twist is usually good for an ache or two but with a folded sheet under my backside and a cushion beneath an arm that I’d hooked over the chair’s back, I felt comfortable. Lovely feedback from the artists rounded off a nice afternoon.