Wednesday 17. 02. 10 Another rainy day so went to the market this morning and then coffee with Laurene, George and Carol at Les Negociants. This afternoon went with a group from the Accueil to the Musée Fleury at Lodève to see an exhibition of the works of Vincent Bioulès a painter from Montpellier. Superb expo and very inspiring. I can’t wait to get back into the studio tomorrow afternoon.
Shows
Drawings
Monday 19. 10 .09 It has been another busy week. I have finished the drawings for my etching series based on my morning ride and now just have to do the etchings! I have also started a couple of new paintings. I went to see a show of paintings by Zoe Benbow at the ANPQ gallery here at Peret which I liked a lot. She is an English painter who has a studios in East London and also up in the Tarn – she paints abstracted landscapes. It is starting to cool off here now and is draughty in the mornings and the evenings, however it is still warm at midi. Had a very relaxed lunch yesterday with Giséle and Jonathan at their house in Ceyras.
Back to work
Wednesday 14. 10. 09. This has been a good week. After my week at St Mathieu I have been very busy in the studio. I have started a couple of medium sized canvasses and have been working on a series of drawings of my morning ride which will form the basis of a new series of etchings using soft grounds and soft resists. This is a new process for me and is supposed to give soft pencil like marks.We shall see. I 
was in Montpellier on the weekend and I saw an interesting show by Ionas. He is a painter from St André de Sangonis (next to Clermont) and his show was in this wonderful slightly run down Chateau des Evéques set in a park in Lavérune. Above, a small painting that I did when painting en plein air with George before I went to St Mathieu.
Les Vendémiaires
Monday 05. 10. 09 I got back last night from my week at St Mathieu de Treviers. What a great week. It was wonderful to meet and mix with the other artists and I have come away with a lot of new ideas and techniques. I’m not sure if this kind of thing is peculiar to France but it is certainly a pity as it is certainly a great experience. I was one of 5 artists, all French. Anne Lacour, Maryse Duponchel, Cornelia Marin and Pascal Myrahong. Pascal was the youngest and I think that Maryse was a bit older than me. Cornelia was originally from Rumania and Anne was from Paris. Each day we had visits from the local school children aged between 5 and 10 and we talked about our work. Tuesday we all had to present ourselves to the association and discuss our work. Wednesday we all (artists and members of the association) went to Sète for the day and visited galleries and the Musée de Paul Valèry there. Lunches and dinners were provided everyday and we either ate out at restaurants or at the Maison d’Emma which is where I was artist in residence in February 2008. The grand finale was a lunch yesterday of mussels in a pastis and curry sauce and roast lamb done on a spit. I didn’t sell anything but I was approached by the patron of one of the large brasseries in Montpellier about an exhibition at his brasserie. All in all a fantastic week.
Birthday
Monday 10. 08. 09 Had a quiet birthday on thursday but a very pleasant one. I drove up the Hérault as far as Valleraugue photographing various potential sights for the river series of paintings and prints. It was a very hot day so was pleasant drivng through the Cevennes. I had a picnic lunch enroute and got back in time to see Whatever Works, a Woody Allen film at the local cinema. I had already celebrated on the Sunday with the ladies before they returned to Canada but on Saturday I was invited over to Giséle and Jonathan’s for dinner with a swim before. Very relaxed. Sunday, again with Giséle and Jonathan, we went to Lamalou les Bains to see an exhibition of paintings there by Elly de Groote. A very good show set in a new gallery which was previoulsy an old railway station. Elly is a fellow student in my French class at the Acceuil.
London
Tuesday 19. 05. 09 Just got back from my trip to London. I stayed at the Europa Hotel in Paddington which was, central, clean and cheap with a serious full English breakfast. Met various friends and caught up and also did some serious gallery hopping. Henry VIII at the British Library, Picasso at the National, Constable and Richter at the NPG, Sickert at Dulwich, Rothko and Turner at Tate Britain, Messager at the Hayward and a few others. Also have set up an expo for November/December 2010 at the Naval and Military Club in St James’s Square. It was a great trip and I now have had my big city fix for a while. Lots of ideas which hopefully will percolate onto paintings. Photograph is Rotten Row Hyde Park.
Downtown
Sunday 15. 02. 09 Yesterday went into Montpellier to get my urban fix. It was a beautiful sunny day and I took the noon bus. En route noticed that the landscape was alive again, with mimosas blooming everywhere. One of the advantages of bus travel is that you can see the landscape rather than concentrating on the road, altho you don’t get the smells that you discover riding on the scooter. Managed to to find a Moleskine notebook at the Fnac for my journal and then wandered over to the Musée Fabre for the Emile Nolde exhibition. An interesting show and I realised that I knew nothing of Nolde’s life or his early paintings which ranged from images from German mythology, peasant life, through to the night life of Berlin to religious paintings. My favourites were his seascapes. There was also a section devoted to his graphic work which included etchings, lithographs and woodcuts. He was extremely prolific and even survived the war under the Nazis painting watercolours (he was forbidden to paint in oil!). After this I went over to the old quarter of town to the vernissage of my friend from St Matieu Gérard Bru. Great show with over forty paintings. After all this culture, I caught the bus back to Clermont. Today I had a tasty lunch chez Giselle and Jonathan. Great food, good conversation and a wonderfully convivial atmosphere. C’était vraiment un bon week-end!
London Weekend
01. 07. 08. Tuesday. Flew to London for the weekend to see Julia and see some of the new exhibitions. Arrived Friday morning and was chez Julia at her new digs in West Ruislip (end of Central Line) by 12.45. Met Jules, dumped my stuff and headed back in town with her. She went to work and I went up to the RA Summer Show. Usual eclectic mix but the Tracy Emin room was a disappointment altho the video of a the lower half of a naked young woman doing the hula hoop with a circle of barbed wire was pretty hard to watch! Met Julia after work and we went to our favourite cheap fish restaurant near the Old Vic and then back to Ruislip. Saturday, out early, full English in Nottinghill Gate and then over to the Tate for the Cy Twombly show. Good show, altho more a retrospective than a showing of some of his better pieces but the audio commentary was excellent. Wandered up to the Strand for lunch and then on to the V&A where we went to the Blood on Paper show. This was a show of artist’s books ranging from early Miro to Anselm Keifer to Damien Hirst. Again interesting but unfocussed but still worth the visit. Went back home and had a wonderful homemade salad for dinner. Sunday, I spent the morning in the garden with the Sunday papers whilst Julia worked and then we went to Uxbridge to see Wanted, a film that normally would not be on my list to see and then back to Ruislip for a very good curry at the local Indian restaurant. Monday I went up to work with Julia and had my breakfast at the BBC before going on to the RA again, this time to see a show on Vilhelm Hammershoi. A late 19th century Danish painter who painted the most hauntingly, tranquil images of empty rooms, landscapes and people with their backs to the painter. Remarkable subtle colours without being at all depressing. This was the best show that I saw! Rented a deckchair in Green Park and had lunch and then caught the train to Chris at Stisted where I enjoyed wine in the garden, a very tasty dinner and then a drive to Stansted airport at 3.30 in the morning! Slept all the way to Montpellier then caught the bus and was back here by 11 this morning.
Summer Show
29. 05. 08. Thursday. I am part of the summer show at the Judith Moore Gallery in Merrickville (just outside Ottawa) which runs from 4 June until 3 August. The gallery is located at 639 St Lawrence Street, Merrickville, Ontario. 613. 269. 3760 and is open every day from noon until 5.00 pm. Also showing are Stuart Beaty, John Alexander Day, Alan Daniel, Marje Fletcher, Kate Green, Martin Green, Peggy Hughes, Dirk Mietzker, Debbie Milling, Don Munz and Jim Weller. Check it out.
Peter Doig at the Tate
13. 03. 08 Thursday. Went up to Tate Britain today to see the Peter Doig expo. Very inspirational. First of all I was impressed at the size of his paintings – for some reason I had always thought that they were smaller. I liked the uneasiness of the work – they all have a certain haunting quality which makes you wonder about what happened or what might happen. Also, particularly in the earlier paintings, I really like the layers and textures of the actual paint which seems to give them a luminescent quality. I found I preferred the earlier paintings to the later ones. The later ones do not seem as interesting either from a painting point of view or from the point of view of subject. The one thing that I did find fascinating was the room with his studies and sketches – it was interesting to see where he was coming from and to see how the work evolved. I liked his painting of that tunnel on the DVP with the rainbow colours.
Friday 19. 12. 14 Artsy have asked me to share this link https://artsy.net/artist/peter-doig-2.