It’s been an impossibly interrupted and complicated run-up to Christmas. Building works stopping and starting, visits to family up north and out west, Christmas presents to buy and distribute, deadlines to meet (an article, a submission, a proposal). I moved out of my studio (due to become a temporary kitchen) and back again; now I’m half in, half out.

None of that is serious stuff. But I do find it hard to deal with the stop-start rhythm. It’s easy to lose momentum and confidence and the thread of what you’re doing. So a few uninterrupted half-days recently have been a godsend and I look forward to some more proper time soon. I don’t mind if there’s chaos all round so long as it’s not my chaos: I can ignore the sledgehammers and skips and banging so long as I don’t have to break off what I’m doing every few minutes.

Here is some of the new work that’s under way. Far from finished – I’d hoped to have it ready to submit for the Towner Gallery Open Exhibition – but still, it is under way and trying to find (in each case) its direction.

A happy 2013 to all.