I cannot say November has been a fruitful month. However, I have finished a pastel painting that has kept me returning again and again to rework. Goodness knows how many times it has undergone transformation but never to any resolution. I’m still thinking it could be better, but sometimes it’s best to put work away out of sight and start something new. These images are the equivalent of playing. Better to play and experiment than set off with the notion of producing work fit for exhibiting. Nothing is more limiting than thinking everything one makes will be successful. Still, even failed work can be torn up and reused as collage.

I feel fortunate to have a home studio a few steps down from my bedroom. If I can’t sleep, I wander into the studio and work. I have daylight lighting, so no problem with colour distortion and nobody I might disturb. The downside is, if I don’t wash all the pastel off my hands, my bed clothes can show signs of my night activities!

I am still successfully showing work online but decided I needed to take a break because of exhaustion. Christmas, with all that entails is galloping and it is time to take stock. I have taken the decision that I’m too old to start a business. My dodgy health is something I am learning to live with.  I don’t need to pressurise myself with social media but will retain a presence. Selling some pictures would be a pleasure, but my drive is to make and show. I would like to look for an exhibition at an actual gallery again and will try to research that. Now Covid is part of normal life, it seems right to try to show actual work again. Seeing images online or in printed publications can never replace the actual physical object.