Standard advice is always to hold on to all of your practice work in order to: a) chart your progress as a painter b) spark ideas for new paintings for those "lacking inspiration" days I reaped the reward for this few days before Christmas when I was asked by my village if I could paint a picture for a gem of a man in our community who has been having a tough time. The idea was to present the gift to "Sooty" our local chimney sweep, who has raised many thousands of pounds

Today I was out and about on a beautiful sunny December day in Suffolk and wandered in to the lovely George Farnham Gallery in Saxmundham to have a look at my paintings which I hadn't seen hung as I'd been the USA since delivering the pictures to Michael and Gary. The Gallery is delightful with a wide range of styles and items such as high quality ceramics and laser cut sculptural images of the human figure - which create great shadow images too as you can see in this photo.

Today I spent a number of hours enjoying (and being challenged by) the exhibits in the recently opened San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Without doubt my favourite works were those by Chuck Close whose massive portraits take many months to plan out and complete. The exuberant markings and colours create a real sense of movement and living flesh. I'm minded to try something similar around one of my paper sculptings I think it could give a tree or hedgerow a real sense of win

I'm currently visiting San Francisco and enjoying lots of sketching and people watching time! One of my real joys is to spend a happy hour or two working my way around the aisles of the VAST Blick's Art Store on Market Street. As always I've hunted down some gorgeous papers - can't wait to get home and see how easily they can be sculpted and worked upon!