Tuesday 19. 05. 09 Today was the first bike (rather than scooter) ride of the summer. I rode for about two hours out to Salasc and back. I rode out on the road and then came back cross country on the VTT paths. Off-roading looks easy but it is not, altho I didn’t come off, I will need to improve my braking and balancing skills. However, the exercise was good but I’m already feeling stiff. Hopefully it will be easier next time.
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.
Before London
Tuesday 19. 05. 09 These are a couple of small paintings that I did just before I went off to London. The interior is my living room here and the exterior is of the Paul Valery gallery in Sete.
Bank Holidays
Sunday 10. 05. 09 This is the month of public holidays in France, I believe that there are four in May and we have already had two. Had a very civilized lunch last Sunday at Gisele and 
Jonathan’s. It was a warm, sunny day so enjoyed a leisurely lunch with lively conversation and finally got home around 6. Monday evening saw flinty, squinty Clint in Gran Torino here in Clermont. A predictable tale well crafted. Wednesday made it to the beach for the first time this season – 28 degrees. Not too crowded but already the camping cars were there. Wore shorts for the first time this year. Thursday afternoon went to my first ever book club meeting. The book was The Yacoubian 
Building by Alaa Al Aswany which is a great read. Enjoyed the club – good articulate people with diverse opinions. Yet another vernissage Thursday evening at the ANPQ gallery. This week I have done another triptych monoprint of Moureze and have began painting over the previous one in oils. Not sure if this is going to work but will continue with it. Finished Green Landscape and another small landscape that I painted 
near Pinet en route to the beach. Also done a couple of non landscapes just to have a break.
Multi prints
Tuesday 28. 04. 09 This last week have been busy with various projects. Drawn in the basics for another landscape which may be in the textured landscapes series I don’t know yet. Have also been working on a new series of monoprints which are a combination of more than one plate. I like the idea of making a different size of mark and a more gestural mark. I worked on 3 plates put together, each plate being 35 cm x 50 cm so the whole thing measures a bit more that 1 metre across. it is a bit of a performance to print it because you have to make sure that each sheet has all the same degree of dampness and that you apply roughly the same amount of pressure to each plate. However I think it worked out quite well. I now want to try another one which is 6 plates so that the final piece will be about 1 metre square. I have been thinking a lot about combining words and images and have been looking at some of Robert Rauschenberg’s prints. Friday I went to a vernissage of an expo of artist’s books at Octon. Inspiring. Started me thinking about initial letters and illuminated manuscripts as a way of combining words and pictures. Also reminded me how much I like handmade books. Thinking about an accordion book of the ride on the D908 from Moureze to Clermont. Went into Montpellier yesterday to see Claire, bright sunny day but windy on the drive back. Just got back from a Kazakhstani movie called Tulpan. Life is hard on the steppes.
Maryann’s Visit
Saturday 18. 04. 09 Maryann came down last Monday from Nice with her husband Greg. Greg went back on Tuesday morning but Maryann stayed until this morning. We managed to jam a lot of things into four days. 
Besides visiting Villeneuvette and Pezenas, we went to life drawing classes in Octon and last night had a wonderful dinner at George and Laurene’s.Maryann never stopped drawing from the moment she arrived: the gate at Villeneuvette, the market at Clermont and the square at Pezenas, all documented. Yesterday while walking through the Cimetière Marin 
in Sete we discovered a book on one of the graves. It had been turned in to a piece of sculpture and was in English. Very bizarre. This morning I realised the bus schedule had changed so I had to hastily drive Maryann to the airport on the scooter with her suitcase between my knees. Not to be recommended!!!
New Directions
Sunday 10. 04. 09 Finally finished Lac du Salgou and have been trying various new methods of working to try and loosen up. Octon is a small 12″ x 12″ on board where I drew the image in oil stick, washed the whole board in linseed oil and then painted into the wet oil. I have also been working on adding colour to my black and white 
monoprints. I have just varnished the print and am waiting for it to dry before adding colour in thin loose oil glazes. Seeing the work of John White last week at the Peret vernissage, I have again been thinking about how to add text to pictures, something I have been interested in for a long time. I have discovered a local writer, Max Rouquette, who has written prose, poetry, plays and music about the Hérault. He wrote in Occitan and seems to really capture the sense and smell and feel of this particular landscape. I went to the libray, here which is named after him, and borrowed an anthology of his work in Occitan but also in French. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make this work with my paintings and prints! Yesterday went to another vernissage this time at the Prieuré St Martial. This is a cluster of Gites which hosts an exhibition once a year I think. Each artist has his or her own Gite in which to show their work. Interesting international collection of painters, sculptors and photographers all living and working in the Hérault.
Deux Vernissages
Sunday 05. 04. 09 It has been a busy week. On Monday I went to Montpellier to IKEA to buy a coffee table and after checking to see that the parcel would fit on the scooter I forgot to see if they had it in stock. They didn’t! However it was a pleasant drive and as always I picked up a few 
small things. I had George and Laurene over for lunch on market day which worked well with chicken stuffed with goat’s cheese mixed with taragon. Thursday and Friday evening I went to a couple of vernissages, the first on Thursday at Peret at the anpq gallery and the other on Friday at Aniane. Both interesting, my friend Jonathan was part of a group show in Aniane. This morning I have been to the flea market at Marseillan looking for a carpet and then this afternoon went for a drive around lac du Salagou – it was warm enough to drive in a T shirt! I have been working on a monoprint of textured landscape this week and have done a couple of small paintings trying out a technique of drawing into the paint more.
Lac du Salagou
29. 03. 09 Sunday Claire came by the house this morning and we went off to lac du Salgou for a hike. It was cool but sunny so we drove to Celles which is an abandoned village on the shores of the lake. We parked at Celles and then walked along the lake shore. Everything is bursting into Spring, the gorse is in flower as are the wild irises plus many other plants and shrubs whose names I do not know. It always surprises me the varieties of plants that survive in this harsh environment. We had lunch by the lake and then walked back to the village where we met a very friendly dog who lead us out of the village on another path up to the ridge and then back. A very invigorating day. Back here for tea after which Claire left for Montpellier.
Mt Aigoual
21. 03. 09 Saturday. Met Claire at St Martin de Londres then drove up to the summit of Mt Aigoual. We stopped en route at the Café du Siecle. Very authentic but when Claire asked for a little more milk for her tea they demanded another 20 cents! So much for the rustic locals!!! Surprised to find snow on the summit and despite the sunshine only 5 degrees. Came back down a bit until we found a Tourist Office who showed us a hike in the woods where all the trees were identified. Eventually found the trail, had a our sandwiches and then went for a lovely walk. Passed many different types of pine including some surprisingly big ones. Evenutally ended up at a little hameau with an old church and then back tracked back to the car. En route down stopped at La Cravate for the view and also dessert – excellent as always. Drove back to St Martin where I got back on the scooter and drove back to Clermont.