…or, to be less pretentious, it’s a pleasure to go and see a piece of work completed some time ago in situ, in its new home.

This is a cast paper piece, Homer’s Moly, hanging in Hall Farm, Harpswell. Hall Farm Nursery is famous for its wonderful plants. Very appropriate, since the title refers to the bit in the Odyssey where Hermes tells Odysseus to use the juice of the moly plant – thought to be Galanthus (snowdrop) – as an antidote to Circe’s wicked potions. His entire crew have been stricken with amnesia. It seems bit ironic that galanthamine is now being used in the management of Alzheimer’s disease.

Have a look at this interesting worldwide project, started two years ago by Andy Pepper at the Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham – where we have seen many a good film:

One Million Points of Light

Artists in 21 parts of the globe have ‘switched on’ blocks of light. (See if you can find my own tiny block.) By January there had been over 800,000 ‘hits’ from 92 countries or territories, which makes the average number of visitors to a gallery, even for a successful exhibition, look minuscule. In theory every person who visits the site might go on to look at this one….

Here (appropriately I hope) is Semi-transparent, which is a celebration of light. It’s actually based on the AIDS virus and is constructed mainly of felt, cellophane and tissue:

Not enough of the clouds seem to have made it to the hanging stage, but the dragons mostly did. An entire primary school became dragon-obsessed over a couple of weeks and this is the result. It can be seen hanging alongside the current main exhibition Seeing Dragons in the Clouds, which celebrates the interaction of imagination and design, at the Hub, Sleaford. It’s on until March 30 and well worth a visit (even if you don’t like dragons).

The whole project was a pretty exhausting start to the year, but produced such brilliant enthusiasm and results that it was well worth it. I shall be doing another couple of workshops at the Hub next week, this time for families, aiming to produce some African-style animal prints using a little Lincolnshire mud to add local colour. Then it’s back to the studio for some serious work.

I suppose if I celebrate the ups in my everyday life as an artist it’s only fair to record the setbacks. I’ve just been turned down for membership of Axis, the ‘online directory and resource’ for contemporary artists, but they don’t tell you why…. As I’ve been a practising artist for some years, regularly doing solo exhibitions by invitation, and constantly experimenting and innovating rather than sticking to safe territory, I guess there’s not much more I can do to be a ‘contemporary artist’. Still, I continue to make and sell work: here’s a farewell to ‘A Crying for Wine’, finished last autumn, which has just been sold at the Ropewalk Gallery, one of the nicest possible places to exhibit.

And there are lots of practical, real-life projects in the offing. Generating and exchanging ideas, creating and exhibiting work, workshops, commissions, working with adults and children…. And, of course, all of the administrative stuff – time to hunt out some new opportunities!

New and exciting prospect for May: an invitation to join in Brighton and Hove Open Houses, which takes place during the famous month-long Festival. I’ll be one of two mixed media artists – others are showing sculpture, paintings and photography – at (or is it in?) Hove Park Villas.

My contribution will centre on hand-cast cotton paper, and art from recycled materials (both indoor and outdoor). Since our hosts are personally and professionally dedicated to recycling this seems very fitting!

To celebrate the first post of the New Year, here is a picture of my mixed media piece, Celebration, as it now looks in its new home. This is the dark, atmospheric lair (‘shed’ sounds a bit dull) of Gary the guitarist: a place for lessons and inspiration. Every inch is covered with interesting stuff but somehow he found room for another piece.

It incorporates some genuine party debris (corks, wrappers, Annis’s bottle-tops, plastic forks – all sorts) on a background of printed and hand-coloured invitations.

Kandahar is not the last piece I finished but the colours are sort of Christmassy. It’s on display at the Ropewalk Gallery, Barton-on-Humber, in their Christmas show.

Christmas has never been stressful in our household – a blissful interlude of licensed ease, cooking nice things, time to read and take it slowly, the smell of pine, stockings (the best bit), parcels….Often I have a deadline for pictures in early Jan but, yippee, not this year. I have hardly set foot in the studio over the last ten days or so.

But suddenly things surge up on the horizon – most urgent deadline being the end of January. This involves creating work, with an infants’ school, and inspired by the exhibition Seeing Dragons in the Clouds at the Hub, Sleaford, to be put on display there at the same time. Wonderful evocative title! Then back into the studio to prepare for a very busy April and May….

No need for comment, really – the event was well supervised. The Lincolnshire artists’ Open Studio scheme (Art on the Map) struggles with the geography – studios are relatively few and far between. Some people who visited me yesterday had driven 200 miles between studios, but few people are that dedicated! Actually it’s the local people who don’t seem interested, despite all my efforts, but I always meet some really interesting people from further afield.

I parted with one picture yesterday that felt like an old friend; this was a large collage of our garden which won a prize last year. Sad to see it go – but great to see it go to a good home. It clears the mind for new work….

Problems loading photos, plus the effort of getting together my current exhibition and preparing for the pre-Christmas Open Studios this coming weekend, have kept me from updating this page. But here belatedly is an image from ARTicles of Association (with two other Lincolnshire artists, John Lincoln and Stuart Goodacre). ‘The Trivial Round’ includes buttons, clothes-pegs, and sundry other bits and pieces from everyday life. The exhibition continues at ForgeArts, Hackthorn (near Lincoln), till 9 December and also features the Exquisite Corpse which has a fine niche all to itself!

On Saturday and Sunday I will be throwing my doors open (if it’s not too cold) and welcoming people in to have a look round and possibly buy some Christmas presents of an arty sort.

This weekend (12/13 October), and again on 1/2 December, 11-5, Lincolnshire artists are opening their studios to all and sundry. The idea is to invite people not only to look at some art, but also to talk to the artist about how it’s produced, and maybe even see work in progress.

If you’re interested the list of studios and a map is here:

www.artonthemap.org

I shall be open and delighted to see visitors. My work is on display in the conservatory as the place I actually work is strewn with debris!