On my last day working in Michael Horn’s studio in early July I suddenly produced what may well be one of my best paintings. I say ‘suddenly’ but in fact it was the culmination of an intense few days drawing, colour washing and inking. A bottle in the studio had featured strongly in several of these studies and now it appeared without premeditation beside a Beaker sensu a reddish, externally decorated beaker-shaped pot characteristic of early metal-working people in western Europe some 4000 years ago.

The quality of the work seemed to demand that it appear in my contribution to the ‘Viewing Change’ exhibition in Halesworth Gallery so I persuaded my framer, Linda Thomas, to frame and glaze it as an addition to those she had already completed. Unfortunately, in the rush I overlooked both signing and photographing it so have no good image of it; here it is as I received it back from Linda, photographed at an angle from the side because otherwise the image is dominated by the photographer’s reflection. It looks, nevertheless, quite good in the exhibition.