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Hurray! I at last have my studio up and running in Bruton. I have been working on it for months, with some help – casting a concrete base, assembling the wooden walls, nailing down the shingles and giving it a coat of paint – and it is at last habitable. For the last year or so I have been limited to what I could do in a dining room – the sort of location where big splashy paintings and throat-gripping turpentine fumes are seldom welcome.

The first job was to repair a painting damaged (probably inevitably) in the move. You can just see a bit of it in the foreground in this shot. It is now suitably restored and, once the varnish has dried, will be making its way to its new owner in Germany.

So now, the freedom to get started on something new…