When I tell people at my son’s school that I’m an artist I’m sure they think that I waft about painting watercolours in a field full of poppies while eating Cadbury’s Flakes (you have to be a certain age to remember that commercial).

Not only do I not have the figure to waft but at this time of the year I am more likely to be swathed in layers of woollies doing mundane but important tasks as the light is too bad & and the days too short to paint much seeing as I only use natural light. The last few weeks have been spent thus:
!: Finishing the accounts
2: Updating the website. This seems to take an inordinate amount of time, how does newblood manage with all those images to deal with?
3: Faffing about with a Facebook page just for me as an artist not personal use (thought I may as well give it a go as other friends use it for professional reasons).
4: Stocktaking. Literal and emotional. What has and hasn’t worked over the last year? How much paper, canvas & materials do I have in? Photographing and listing new work. What do I want to work on next?
5: Rethinking: Looking at paintings that aren’t finished, or haven’t worked and either finishing/reworking them or consigning them to the back of the shelf.
6: Planning: That long planned exercise in a series of water paintings or Yorkshire landscapes? More work on linocuts?

Would much rather just be painting or printmaking but all of the above needs to get done. However the days at last are getting lighter and longer, and yet still the closest I’ve come to that field of poppies is the triptych above (must add to number 5).