Sorry for the long delay since the last post. I'm just coming out of my winter hibernation, which has culminated, as usual, with a cross-country skiing trip to Finland.

I'm now making a start on this year's paintings. Following the renewal of my relationship with the North Cumbrian Fells last year, I'm concentrating again on the Scottish West Coast where a lot of my earlier work was based. Now that I'm based in Cumbria, I'm having to make more of an effort to visit those locations which I know offer the greatest inspiration, but that's no great hardship.

I have an exhibition planned in August, at the Birch Tree Gallery in Edinburgh. Its a wonderful, bijou gallery gallery on Dundas Street, the exhibition is called Beachcomings and runs from the 2 - 31 Aug. If you're going to be visiting the Festival, do pop in!

Finally, I'll shortly be exhibiting at a new gallery, Northern Makes in Bollington, Cheshire. This is a very new and exciting gallery which is rapidly making a name for itself and already exhibits a number of excellent artists.