TAKING THE PISS:

Then she slurred she said Edward The Confessor It's under the dresser Mick MacManus was my favourite wrestler I couldn't make out what she was trying to tell me. My ears deceived me. What kind of dog is it the man with a snooker cue fixed in his hand asked - only me and my colleague have been having a debate see, and I think it could be some breed of Otterhound..

Magic Metaphysical Landscapes:

Hahahahahaha-hey presto 3 card trick walked into the Black Boy Tavern last Saturday I like to provoke. The intoxicated lady the merry girl at the bar (it was a little after five in the evening) she asked "what's the name of your dog?" she added "he's just like a teddy bear" Dexterity I replied "Pardon" she said.

Autograph Book

Claudia Boldt and Eleanor Meredith paid a visit to my studio yesterday and delivered a pile of prints for me to sign. 100 autographs on Walking The Dog. They had very generously considered my work worthy of inclusion to be part of an exhibition they are curating next month in Brixton Village. Their work is genuinely inspiring and witty and may even encourage my participation in this illustration lark again. Later the same day I am in the company of a gathering of a thousand illustrators in Heffers Bookshop Cambridge for the launch of Children's Picturebooks -The art of visual storytelling. by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles. And to quote Axel Scheffler from the rear cover 'This beautifully produced book gives a real insight into the art of the picturebook...'

Claudia Boldt is one of the key contributors in the book and rightly so. It was a jolly evening in the company of Martin Salisbury, John Lawrence, John Holder, Pam Smy, Alexis Deacon, Marta Altes, Katherina Manolessou, Edgar Allan Poe, Dave Shelton, Chris Haughton, Deirdre McDermott (Walker Books art director/ publisher) and an orchestra of stunningly gifted artists that are emerging in to the picturebook world via the Cambridge MA course, a torrent a deluge there aint enough books to go round.......round and round. So many pictures. Marta's autographed copy of No! stuffed in a bag,caught the last train home changed at Aberdeen and got a lift on a milk float and arrived back with the coalman.

DOGGONE...

ENLIGHTENED:

SCARFE on SEARLE

Today's Guardian Newspaper. I like this story a lot. Thank you Mr. Scarfe.

S E A R L E

Just heard the news from Professor Martin Salisbury that Ronald Searle has died. Martin met Searle and his wife a couple of years back for an interview with the great man to accompany an exhibition at The Ruskin Gallery Cambridge. By all accounts a warm lively meeting lubricated by fine champagne. Apart from Searle's stunning Japanese POW drawings I dismissed his work as old fashioned and dusty and dated. It wasn't until I clapped eyes on a large original of Searles's at The Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hannover circa 1991 a drawing depicting Toulouse-Lautrec in a Parisian brothel, that I conceded. I could see the the influential subtle genius in the draughtsmanship, but his work and that of his European contemporaries was the stuff I wanted to trample over. I failed. A few years ago an art editor friend of mine bought a Searle original with three separate vignettes on a theme of Wimbledon Tennis for £6000.00. I imagine they must've just doubled in value. I'll go and drink a toast to Ronald Searle.