It has been a very quiet week for me after an intense period getting all my pictures completed and sent off. As I predicted, I came down with some kind of bug and the weather has been extremely cold so it has been a very lethargic week. All I want to do is hibernate! Things are much busier at Brookes, and there is much to do in organising the field trip to Brussels and Amsterdam for early January. The students have also now specialised into their choosen subject and we now have an intense period as they begin to get their portfolios together for degree applications. 

I now have a completely bare walled studio – which is quite intimidating. I have a series of pictures to make for the Sarah Wiseman Gallery for a group show in May. So that gives me another realistic deadline to work for. Therefore I need another few sessions of drawing from life in Oxford. I think I may now concentrate less on the landscape and more on the types of people and situations I encounter. But I have said that before and things will change…