It’s been a busy Summer and Autumn. I’ve been continuing with my research and have been to France, Cornwall,Vancouver, London and Leeds.

I went to the Dordogne region in France to view at first hand some of the earliest known paintings in the caves. They are wonderful. I then traveled up to Brittany to see the alignments at Carnac and the carvings on Gavrinis.

In Cornwall I saw more megalithic art and more recent work at Tate St Ives and The Barbara Hepworth Museum.

During my week in Vancouver I worked with Kristin Carlson on a dance and projection drawing film which I have now edited – but I’m having problems completing the edit due to compatibility issues. Hopefully these will be resolved soon. The piece is called ‘Raven Dance, Selkie Song’ and is inspired by artifacts, myths and rituals from both First Nations and Celtic culture as well as being an improvised conversation.

Whilst in Vancouver I took part in video eye tracking experiments with Hector Larios at SIAT (School of Interactive Arts and Technology) in Simon Fraser University, Surrey. We looked into how my eye and hand work together in observational drawing, both drawing still subjects and moving ones. The results are very exciting.

In London I had the opportunity to interview Philip Steadman who wrote ‘Vermeer’s Camera’ and Eileen Adams who works for The Big Draw and the Drawing Campaign. In addition I saw the Edwaerd Muybridge exhibition at Tate Britain, plus shows at the V+A, Tate Modern and the National Gallery.

Finally, I have spent three days in Bruntcliffe High School in Leeds working with 6th form students on observational drawing with the projection technology. On day two we had three musicians from Opera North to draw which was both exciting and inspiring.

Now I’m home to the studio and the snow to think about it all and begin to write it all up.