NOVEMBER 2025

Saturday 1.11.25

Oh dear, I receive a very nice e mail from the daughter of a lovely friend who had wanted to investigate the possibility of buying a painting for her mum’s special birthday in November. I sent her images a few weeks ago and had included one of the second painting Angel and Elephants that I had earmarked for the SPG’s Trent gallery exhibition. thinking that in the unlikely event of this being the one they chose out of the seven I sent, I would perhaps have time to paint another for Trent. But as I hadn’t heard from her I assumed she and her brother might have found something else for her mum. But today I’ve just received an e mail confirming that THIS was the painting they would like to proceed with. I look through the pile of framed wooden panels that Richard had primed and prepared with several coats of gesso and lo and behold I find one of the same size but the frame is proportionally larger and flatter, which I rather like. his means I have to change direction so whilst we’re standing in my studio discussing it I start to lay the ground colours on it so that they will be dry to start work after breakfast. I remain very focussed and start to create a similar but different composition. Luckily this is only a 12 x 12 inch but it means being very decisive and not trying out too many thoughts. In the evening I send her a message just saying will be in contact tomorrow evening as I’m up to my neck. It is looking in with a chance by the time I call it a day at 3am.

Sunday 2.11.25

Hear from Caroline that she and Simon have finally retired (after selling their second very successful company). She has noticed that our charity Open Studio is on the 6th and 7th and wondered if I might paint a garden miniature and later asks if I could put it by for them as they can’t come on Saturday but can on the Sunday.

Monday 3.11.25

Working intensely on Martin’s commission, Homing in on various parts of the painting such as trees in the background and giving more variation to the colour of the gravestones and generally working into details across the painting as I’m aware that I said I thought it would be finished by Christmas so that we could have cards made for Martin to send out.

Tuesday 4.11.25

By coincidence Martin e mails today enquiring as to whether they would be able to come to Bishops Cleeve to collect the painting and the postcards before they go to Prague. Looking  the diary and considering the work I have to on this and other projects such as Art London and the miniatures for our Mulled Wine, Mince Pies and Miniatures charity open studio, I home in on a date  14 th December just after that as there are still quite a lot of things I want to do on the commission.

Wednesday 5.11.25

E mail from Amy sending her brother Tom’s address for me to send the painting to.

Very nice invitation from Arlene at the Cheltenham & Gloucester Hospitals Trust inviting us to a concert held for their Big Space Cancer Appeal and a reception at the Deanery beforehand.

Thursday 6.11.25

Katharina comes to collect the painting I’ve created and donated to the Friends of The Wilson for their fundraising event this evening. Richard was pleased to see that their were bids starting at the reserve and finishing at the ‘buy it now’ price as it always feels to be such a responsibility as mine is rather more expensive, in fact the whole of the four other artworks, the book and the membership offer don’t come to half of my reserve price. So it’s the same feeling Arabella had at the Lions auction when she worried that no-one would bid on their Lion Curatio but of course they did.

We’ve never been to The Nook before. It’s a rooftop restaurant very close to the Town Hall overlooking Imperial Gardens though of course since the clocks have gone back it’s now very dark when we arrive at 5.45.  We go up in a lift to join the group of Friends. Jenny Ogle comes up and says how generous it is of me to have created and gifted the little painting to the Friends and whilst I’m speaking to her I spot Wallace who has already arrived and is in conversation. My little painting is displayed on the small easel I had loaned them for the purpose in the corner. The other works which are all much larger, are on the walls. There is one by Stephen Belinfante who taught art to Henrietta when she was at school, another by Jane Sasanow who I think is one of the Cheltenham Open Studios artists, a print by our late friendAnthony Green RA and  string construction called Passementerie 001 by Helena Doyle who is one of the young artists in residence at The Wilson. A copy of John Whittaker’s book The Best and a joint membership to The Friends of The Wilson. We then drive to Bristol for Martin’s book launch which as it is a marvelllous performance  by Martin accompanied by a pianist, buy half a dozen of his new book of poetry Heartarchery

Friday 7.11.25

‘Phone call from Sam who’s working on a programme called The Art Game for BBC2. They had visited the Paragon Gallery where Ellie had guided them towards my painting One Day in May. They then had two of their would-be art dealers or interior designers discussing whether the painting would fulfil the brief from their imaginary client. So Sam is hoping I will give them permission to use the painting in the programme. We chat for quite some time while he explains the general intentions and would like me to sign a contract/release form.

Saturday 8.11.25

Working on miniatures for my Christmas Open Studio

Thursday 13.11.25

Go to Gloucester for the Higher Awards ceremony of the Gloucestershire College students. It always such a treat to be there as an hon. vice president to share in this magnificent celebration in our glorious Cathedral.

Friday 14.11.25

In the Balance of Time has been back on my easel for about a week but I’ve been so busy working on the Resurrection commission that I haven’t had time to re-commence work on it. But today have made considerable progress

Saturday 15.11.25

Continue working on The Balance of Time for the Portland Gallery to show at the London Art Fair in January.

Sunday 16.11.25

Richard drove us up to London to meet the Doctors Gita and Chirag. She is a urologist and Chirag is a brain surgeon and professor of neurosurgery etc. in New York. I painted Gita and her sister Usha, a double portrait commissioned by their parents Shanta and Subbi, also doctors, when Gita and Usha were in their late teens and likewise Chirag commissioned me to do a portrait of their twins Sedna and Ronan when they were about five years old. So we are taking them to dinner at the Chelsea Arts Club and Henrietta is meeting us there too. Such a lovely evening and great to catch up on all the news on both sides. We left the Club after 11 but were home by 2am

Thursday 20.11.25

We attend the graduation ceremony at the university where I have the pleasure of progressing with the academics (as an hon Doc) to the stage where later in this celebration of achievement I present my award to a fine art student who this year is Tabitha Barlow.

Friday 21.11.25

send painting special delivery to Tom address in Leicestershire for he, his sister Amy, and Adrian their Dad to give to their Mum Carole for her special birthday on the 28th.

Sunday 23.11.25

Nathan ‘phones from Mexico today, it’s so good to hear him. And he cooly drops into the conversation that he’s won another BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) for best Production Design which is for the film Harvest. It’s particularly thrilling for us of course as Richard painted the maps that featured large in it. We’re so pleased for him and added to another three awards for the Hornbach film he’s just won Gold in the international advertising Shot Awards. It’s so thrilling; he works very hard and these trophies are so well deserved. The scenes in Harvest were so beautiful they looked like paintings and we had the pleasure of accompanying him to the London premiere. We are so proud of him as we are of Henrietta whose job lecturing at Goldsmiths encompasses so much more than just being head of art and design for postgraduate teaching students. She also delivers Artsmark sessions for the Arts Council, other sessions for City & Guilds as well as helping in Sir Frank Bowling’s studio where she devised a learning scheme on his work for children that was used by the Getty in San Francisco. She’s a very caring person and does much to support her students

Thursday 27.11.25

Simon and Caroline come to collect the painting The Friends that they have so generously bought from the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Musuem auction

Saturday 30.11.25

We’ve just come back from Cirencester where we attended the fabulous ball that Laurence and Jackie organise for Linc. We were on the top table amongst a rather illustrious group - Sir Christopher Evans and his wife Anne who bought my largest Tiger & Angel painting from the Brian Sinfield Gallery, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and Lady Bathurst who I sat next to. The room was full of glamorous women with beautiful dresses and Hermione (Laurence and Jackie's youngest) daughter who did a lot of the organising of the event, looked particularly beautiful in a long turquoise silk evening gown with a laced back. Laurence said the ball had grown from year to year - this is its third - and the table layouts and decorative stage lighting was by the LLB team. It’s a splendid and glamorous affair as are most of the things Laurence and Jackie organise but this is particularly special as it is for Linc the blood cancer charity and during the evening we are given a brief talk by a young man who was diagnosed with acute leukaemia at the age of 26, which was very enlightenig as he was immediately hospitalised and in solitary undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy and stem cell transplant from his brother. As he says he is still here to tell the tale. There is also a round of applause when it is mentioned that Tony Iommi was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma in 2006 so he’s obviously doing very well. Richard has lymphoma too but was diagnosed at stage 4. A brilliant evening and Toyah and Robert had donated some handprints and a vinyl for the auction too. The auctioneer was excellent.