You know that old caberet routine where a guy in a tux tries to spin loads of plates on rods? He has to keep checking them all and giving each one a wee spin to keep them all going and stop them from falling off and breaking. Last week’s teaching at Brookes has been a bit like that. There are over 65 students and everything is new to them and they all need a gentle spin every 20 minutes or so. It was a very long an intensive week doing drawing excerises. But it was highly enjoyable too and made the days go very fast.

I did manage to get down to the studio most evenings after I had a wee swim. I have working on ideas for pictures for the forthcoming Christmas show at the John Martin Gallery with the theme Rosseau’s Jungle. This is to coincide with a show of Henri Rosseau work at the Tate Britain. I have just been looking at my extremely old Rosseau book (had since I was 15) and tried to get into the spirit of his work. This has been quite fun and you can see the results in the picture above.

I am trying to use Oxford as my jungle setting and use cats (and specifically the one I live with in my new home) as the animals. But maybe I will have better ideas in the week ahead.

Oh I had a nice trip out to Hook Norton on Sunday with my friend Lucy. The landscape there in the Cotswolds is fantastic and we went to see some wonderful standing stones. I did a few wee sketches but I think I have perhaps done enough Pagan pictures for a while.