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A good yarn it is, although the prose does improve where (near imperceptibly) du Maurier takes over.  Regardless of whether one buys into the romanticism that people see in all things Celtic, Cornwall has a stunningly historic landscape, and on my trip I visited the ancient hillfort of Castle Dor of course, believed to be the site of King Mark's castle.  The first day of my trip had been incredibly wet, so I walked to the fort on the second day.  Still got drenched by a heavy shower though!  The second day also saw me discovering the stunning viewpoint of Helman Tor (including the "Logan Stone"), just when the sun was getting low, and rain had cleared the skies.  I took some wonderful pictures, some of which I hope to turn into paintings soon.  

I also found an old straw-filter cider press still in operation at Hay Farm, near Polruan (strong sweet cider...) and revisited pretty Polperro.  But Helman Tor has now become my favourite spot in Cornwall.

When I was talking to Rob Walker, of the West Gallery, West Putford, Devon recently, he said that in the current economic climate his top end sales were holding up, it was the medium priced works that were selling less.  I thought this was interesting in more than one way.  It may show that the top end of the market is less affected by the current economic restructuring than people on median incomes are, and it may also indicate that where interest rates are low, and share values are dropping or flatlining, buying art is seen as a good investment.  This is good news for artist with an established name.

It made me think about the economic events of recent years.  Having a fairly solid grounding in economics and having been a political activist in the past, I have followed the debates and public responses with interest, albeit from a distance. 

Now, that both the public and governments around the world want to avoid having to save failing banks ever again is entirely reasonable.  But a lot of the other name calling and anger is misplaced and counterproductive.

At the time of the first bank bail-outs I watched a debate on TV where a panel and the audience were debating who was most the blame for the mess: the government, the bankers or the regulators.....  Everyone had their own favourite culprit, and, strikingly, nobody thought of pointing out that an important participant in this game was being left out: the great British public!  Having myself got into debt in the past, and having indeed found it easy to access credit, it never occurred to me to blame the banks who lent me the money....  I was there, conscious, aware, alive at every spending decision I made wasn't I?  I took risks based on expectations of future income, and it didn't work out.  The elephant in the cupboard here is what I call the "R" word: responsibility.

And I knew, shallowly following the news, that 3/4 of all credit card debt in Europe was held by Brits!  I had read about Greece being seen as having cheated itself into the single currency, running larger deficits than the rules allowed.... I knew that the US were carrying large debts on the strenght of dollar being the global trading currency.... It was a gamble, and whilst the going was good, which politician was going to kill the goose with the golden eggs?

But ultimately, prosperity comes from taking full responsibility for where you are.  Bankers like money and are unashamed of it.  Most people on the left think that money is bad, corrupts and/or destroys the planet.   Is it surprising that it is hard to be solvent  when your underlying beliefs are so mixed up about such a crucial part of life?  And is it surprising that the people who like the money-game are coming out of the current phase of turmoil more or less alright?

My remedy is to get on with what you love doing, have faith in your ablilities and, crucially, take responsibility.  Blaming others will never get you out of a rut.

When I considered going to art college in the Netherlands some 30 years ago it struck me that despite the pretension to free the students up there was a lot of conformity.  As I was trying to break free from a conformist upbringing that was the last thing I wanted.  Several studies and many jobs later I find I can't leave pencils and paint brushes alone, and am exhibiting work in many locations in the green county of Devon, England.  And, as I am often overawed by the beauty of the landscape that I live in, I often express myself in that rather traditional subject: the landscape.  I try not to make them twee, but a radical subject it ain't....  My fascination is with colour though, and playing with paint, and the miracle of starting with a white canvas and, after a few hours (or a little longer), stepping back and seeing a completed work in front of me. Magical! The same love of colour and contrast shines through in my abstract pattern work  too. I have difficulty defining this work myself: is it mandala-like?  Zen? Escheresque? Vasarely, Riley or even Mondriaan inspired?

Landscape, whilst it appears to be an old genre, was actually relatively frowned upon until the mid 18th century (unless as a back-drop to mythical or biblical subjects), then took off during the 19th century to become more suspect again with the modernists.  I'd like to think though that I can continue a trail started by such great landscape artists as Rembrandt (sketches and etchings), Corot and Pisarro, and the Scottish colourists(Peploe, Cadell, Ferfuson).  But I am also fond of the work by the "railway poster artists", such as Richmond and Wilkinson, particularly the flat, gouache-like application of colours with strong contrasts.