John Several years ago we went to one of the last performances given by the celebrated stand-up comedian Ken Dodd. It was a very memorable occasion, and one of the gags which has remained with me was the following. Doddy was from Liverpool, of course, and the performance was in Harrogate. At one point, admitting to … Read more
The task of preparing material for the revision of this web-site is well under way, but I had not anticipated the labour it would involve. I have been through the existing “galleries” identifying old material I want to eliminate. Then I have constructed an elaborate table in which I record, gallery by gallery, the items … Read more
Over the past two days I have become even more convinced than I always have been of the potential of contemporary technology actually to suffer from insanity. At last I have begun to make serious progress with the preparation of material for the revision of this website. I congratulated myself on having devised a routine … Read more
What a choice! I find myself torn between four tempting or imperative demands. I have embarked on the revision of this web-site, and have made less progress than I wanted to. The garden is a complete mess after the winter, and an hour spent out there this afternoon only served to emphasise just how much … Read more
Progress is quite good now on the revision of my website. The secret of my success has been to abandon the clever spreadsheet I was sent, and fall back on the technology I know …. as simple table. The biggest asset of this way of working is that I actually know what I am doing, … Read more
I had no idea, when I launched the current revision process for this website, just what a task it would turn out to be. As it happens, revising the text has not been too difficult a process. The real effort is in the illustrations. Of course, I have to take on the updating of these. … Read more
Yes: that’s the one! He was the one who had to keep rolling a boulder up the hill eternally. I was thinking about him today as I worked on the revision of my web-site. This task is long overdue, largely because of the amount of labour I knew it would involve. Now I have grasped … Read more
The past year has been unlike any other when it comes to the number of exhibitions in which my work has appeared. The down-side of that, of course, was the enormous amount of work these entailed, with the selection of work, preparation for the event, transport, hanging, publicity, and sometimes also invigilation. The often unrecognised … Read more
I am launched on the difficult process of revising my web-site …. not just the odd periodic tarting up, but a pretty substantial reassessment for what it looks like, what it tells people, and what it ought to tell the visitor but doesn’t. It struck me that it could be very useful to have some … Read more
I was asked recently why I take the trouble to drive over to Ilkley each week to take part in a life-drawing class. Let’s face it, I do seem to go to a lot of trouble (and expense!) in order to do this, and it’s certainly not unreasonable to enquire why an activity is worth … Read more