February

The wind is strong and cold. I walk to the sea-front each day and to the end of the pier. The landscape is grey but when I get back I paint with a palette bursting with colour as I try to capture on canvas the last images of France.

January

I'm in London stocking up on paints and planning a visit to the Gauguin exhibition.

There are clear images in my head from the summer which I want to put on canvas when I get back to Cardiff.
A telephone call from a friend yesterday gives me fresh hope of finding a new studio. There may be the prospect of a really good one.

New Years Day

The return to Cardiff wasn't without drama.
I finally arrived back home on the 22nd December to find deep snow and icy roads. The heating didn't work, there was no hot water and the telephone line was down. In two days time the family would be arriving and there would be nine of us living in the house over Christmas and the New Year!
Miraculously the heating was fixed in time and the house returned to normal.
I've learned my lesson. I need to return from France to Cardiff earlier, before winter sets in.
I'm looking forward to starting work again. In the meantime I've just checked the gallery website and discovered I've sold another painting. That's a great start to the New Year!

Studio space.

It will be another week at least before I'm back in Wales and then it will be time to get ready for Christmas. Finding a new studio is definitely a priority in the New Year. In the meantime I'm in London reading about snow in Montcuq and snow in Wales and hoping that when this cold spell passes we'll have a mild winter!

Leaving Montcuq

It's time to leave France and head for Britain.

Montcuq

For the best Cahors wine..

The Rocking Horse.

Café de France

Café du Centre



Nostalgia is setting in. It's early morning and I walk around the village taking in the important bits. Friday nights always spent at the Cafe du Centre; enjoying a drink in the sunshine outside the Rocking Horse on market day and then there's the wine shop which has all the best Cahors wines. Under the chestnut tree at the Cafe de France we spent all the early days, before the house was habitable, making plans and dreaming of how it would be.

Cahors

I went to shop in Cahors early one morning. A student demonstration was planned for that afternoon and I knew the place would get busy. As it was I had the space and time to take a number of photographs but it was only this one that interested me.