There’s a definite whiff of neglect in here isn’t there…? A lot’s changed since last I was here.

Long story short, I’m feeling better than I have done in years, but let’s have a quick catch-you-up:

• Over the past 3 years my mental health has been on-and-off grim with the second half of 2017 being particularly awful.
• However, since Christmas a switch seems to have flicked and I’ve seen a real, rather than temporary, improvement.
• Don’t care what’s actually changed, I’m now feeling great.

There, all caught up. Well, nearly.

If you  follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram you’ll realise that I haven’t been idle. In fact there’s been a few big changes:

First I’ve had a Booth’s garden studio installed in the garden, 21’ by 9’ – internal size.  Sadly, that’s not all for me. My wife Carole is a spinner and weaver, so half (plus) is set up with her looms and other mysterious textile hardware. She’s rather good at it too! Strange how it already feels so small…

Second, I ordered an etching printing press number 1 handmade to order by David Gunning’s team at the Ironbridge Fine Arts & Framing. I’ve only dipped into linocuts a couple of times, but really enjoyed it… apart from printing using the back of a spoon. Results were very mixed and I could see that it wasn’t going to be a fun way of producing more than a handful of prints – hence the press.

Third, I think I may have finally found my ‘thing’. I’ve always thought that oils were my ‘go to’ medium, but lately I’ve been getting really encouraging results with gouache (see my site banner). I can see real potential there.

More about all of the above soon, hopefully with pictures too!

Finally you might have noticed I’m trying to tidy this place up. So, if you find something doesn’t work, has gone missing or looks odd, it’s just me tinkering.

I’ve recently had a merry few evenings writing my privacy policy and cookie information pages – with GDPR there’s so much to take in, and all the advice I’m finding assumes you have some kind of in-house IT team to sort these things out. Well sadly I don’t, and it’s making my brain hurt.

Back soon(ish)