Little was I to know what was to happen in February-March but there you go. First my apologies to my reader for this two-month-long cessation of blog activity. First, I’ve not been very well for the whole of 2017 so far, lacking energy to do anything really; and truth to tell I’ve done very little indeed. But more basically, for the first time in my life I’ve suffered a double block simultaneously: a writer’s block, which I’ve never had before but which has left me wordless since the end of January (and it was coming on during that month); and a painter’s block, which has left me destitute of any new work so far this year. I literally found it physically impossible to open up this website; and it was equally impossible to pick up a paint brush – indeed even to go into the studio.

But I sense things are changing: I finished off two old paintings this afternoon and hope to be able to start a new one or two this week; and, as you can see, I have opened up my webpage and keyed words into a blog. These are two huge steps forward out of the artistic dark place I have been in. May be it has something to do with a visit tomorrow by my good friend and critic, Anna Badar: she is always inspirational. We’ll see how it goes.

She’s actually coming to see ‘my’ sheep, keeping an eye on which has kept me going since New Year. They depart Snape in four day’s time, so I’ll probably try to write about them, and pick up the embryonic thoughts I was beginning to develop at the end of January about sheep and art.

I’ll leave this now, knowing I’ve broken the lock to get back into words, writing and my webpage; and hope to open further the dialogue with what must be myself alone since surely no reader, however loyal, can have stuck with me during two months without a word. Just for the hell of it I’ll add a picture to show, if only to myself, that we’re fully functional again: