Annual Review 2025

  

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Annual Review 2025

 I would rather be a failure on my own terms than a success on someone else’s. 

Tom waits

Travels

Udaipur, Jagdish Chowk temple, 36.9 x 30 cm 

I travelled in India, returning in late March. This was a success and the pictures will be shown at NO31 Gallery in Duns in March 2026.

I revised my travel list recently. 

Social Media

I continue to detach from social media. I can make the familiar arguments about how nasty and manipulative social media is. But even with these properties, I would continue to use it if it had showered me with beenfits. It hasn`t, and I resent how it has promised and failed to deliver (followers, sales) despite how I have supplied it with masses of free content. This is to do with alogarithms, probably that I haven`t paid to have my work promoted, and possibly the work itself. Who knows?

So continue to step outside this.

Flickr

 I have 938 followers, down from 944. I stopped posting here years ago.

Blogger

 There are 85 followers, a decrease of one. There were 465 visitors, with Singapore and Hong Kong bringing the most recorded. But the stats do not seem dependable.

I added a two new blogs to showcase particular work:

Tadeusz Dereowski: in black and white:

https://tadeuszderegowskiblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2025/11/blog-post.html

An Indian Miscellany

https://indianmiscellany.blogspot.com/2025/06/jaipur-bani-park-arch-with-trees-28-x-28.html

Instagram 

 Instagram decided that one or other of something I had posted contravened its "community guidleines" and wouldn`t address what this was when I sent mesages questioning what this meant. It means that I cannot comment on my own postings. With this restriction in place I will no longer use this site. This isn`t much of an issue as I received so little attention here anyway.

Saachi

I didn't sell anything here this year.

 

Facebook

 I continue to post here, though it is an unpleasant site run by unscrupulous individuals.

 

Photography

My strange life

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I took some nice photos, mainly using a cell phone. But I may return to using my small Lumix camera as the image quality is higher.

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Painting

Mannofield, trees in a garden, September,  oil on card, 18 x 20.6 cm 

After India, I continued to explore Aberdeen, revisiting and refining my sense of the place, with a particular emphasis on its lanes and back areas behind Union St. I attempted to paint larger and larger paintings. I had an eye to the Art Fair in mid year.

However, the Art Fair was a flop: my set of panels received few visitors and no sales. What sold there were kitschy pictures of Highland cattle at very low prices. I`ve never been a comercially movivated artist, but I`d hoped that my pictures of Aberdeen would have garnered at least a little interest. No chance!

 I decided to see the failure here as a "wake up call". I returned to a small, intimate scale and paint in black and white, a mode of picture making which I had previously pursued and which never was directed to sales. I revisited the artists that had set me off: Redon, Corot, Kokoschka: pyschological artists whose work closely traces their subjectivities.

The black and white method allows much greater spontanity as (obviously) without colour to consider the descision making can be more rapid. I`m often happy with the results. I feel connected with what I`m making in a  deep way, which is the main thing, I suppose, unless one is a market driven artist.

So I paintined in the garden in Mannofield and along the Old Railway to Duthie Park then along to the Victoria Bridge. Small paintings, dreamlike sometimes.

Exhibitions and Sales

I showed work with Aberdeen Art Fair, and had work with the Society of Scottish Artists. at Milton Gallery, Crathes. At both: no sales. I heard that the sales were low in both of these.

 I showed with No31 Gallery in Duns at"Showroom", an end of year open, where I sold a painting from Brazil, "Joaquina".

It was impossible to get my work into other galleries here. This became demoralising and annoying, as if I was being given the runanround, or running into an unadventurous closed club situation, whih made me miss aspects of Brazil, where people seemed more prepared to "take a punt" on someone new.

Writing

I wrote a good number of new short pieces, which I shall put on here over the next few weeks.

The stories were read to Lemon Tree Writers Group, which I currently Chair and which meets in the Northern Arts Club, Aberdeen.

I also wrote mini-plays which were performed at the Spikin Weird event in the Blue Lamp in Aberdeen. However it seemed these events were largely orientated to the Trans community, so though we were made welcome it did not seem the right place for my work.

It is an irony that forums which so vocally celebrate diversity often create an ambience which encourage only limited form of expression, both in form and content. These limitations are conveyed not through direct censorship but through what is applauded, and a general audience tone. 

The two Mumby plays we performed were politely recieved and good enough, I thought, but what would have pleased the audience were something celebrating trans experience, ideally read in a strong Aberdonian accent.

In Spikin Wierd my "this is not really for me, is it?" moment came when one performer announced to the noisy cheers of others that they had recently had their breasts removed, their transition to "masculinity" having thus passed another milestone.

Other thoughts and... 2026

Mannofield, view from a first floor window,  19.5 x 20

I go Morocco and Spain from December to return in mid-March, for a joint show in Duns art No31, which will show Indian pictures.

 Otherwise, nothing. 

Being in Aberdeen is not enlivening.

2025 went boringly, with no doors opening and a sense of weariness and frutration with those around me, their lack of enthusiasm for anything much, their complacency and dullness.

 Is this just Aberdeen or is it like this everywhere? 

I hope to travel more. I have one eye on Nepal, another on Mexico...

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Mannofield, trees

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Mannofield, trees

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Bark, Craigilea Avenue, Mannofield

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Bark, Craigilea Avenue, Mannofield

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Near Wellbrae Terrace, Mannofield, Aberdeen - 2

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Near Wellbrae Terrace, Mannofield, Aberdeen - 2

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Near Wellbrae Terrace, Mannofield, Aberdeen - 1

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Near Wellbrae Terrace, Mannofield, Aberdeen - 1

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Washing, Craigton Road, Mannofield, Aberdeen: 8 photos

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1.

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6.

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Washing, Craigton Road, Mannofield, Aberdeen

It was a peculiar day: very windy, bright and cold. After I passed this garden I met an old man who was leaning on a gatepost. I asked him if he was all right. He said he was just pausing for breath.

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Comb

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Comb

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AI Art Is Weird, Sad, and Ugly. Let’s Not Pretend Otherwise: link to an article by NIcholas Liu in Jacobin.

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AI Art

https://jacobin.com/2025/12/ai-slop-art-aesthetics-technology-capital/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOk3gBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFzOXhhVktiQ0Nqd3o0MUxMc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkNsDGXXEPm7zvd8pgwbLuwf2zifdbLJM2pxLz0zsaXzUn54_qqrN41xHIyU_aem_yV3p2uqDyUewnMgHZjMBNA&brid=W8EQ5-wkCM3-lmiCQRUD5w

I suspect the article would be better if it avoided the Marxist theorising, which does not add much to the critique of AI.

But a pushback against AI is very necessary: necessary as part of a pushback against sterility. 

This becomes very obvious when travelling, and one encounters similarity in places which used to be quite different from each other,

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Christmas sucks

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 Christmas sucks

I know this may state the obvious but, yes, Christmas sucks.

At least, if you’re over the age of 12. Under that, it might retain some charm.

Here’s a list of things that conspire to make Christmas especially tedious, in no particular order:

1. Excessive expectations / It begins too soon
   Advertising begins in mid-October in some shops. No festival can live up to such expectations. Really, a civilised society would just ban all Christmas-related advertising before mid-December.

2. Presents
   Theoretically, both giving and receiving presents is nice. But in reality these are often a source of stress and waste, propelled by a sense of obligation. This creates immense awkwardness. And the decisions. And the cost. And the materialistic competitiveness...

3. Too much
   The aesthetics are all about excess. Immoderation and waste are essentially unpleasant. Indulgence in alcohol and food brings costs: hangovers, sickness, self-disgust.

4. Cliché / repetition
   There’s a lot of bad music, ugly decoration, and stupidity. And it’s the same junk you saw a year ago and the year before that. You can try to do things more tastefully, with a sense of modesty, but somehow that might not feel right.

5. Meaninglessness
   Celebrating stuff you don’t believe in isn’t fun or cool. Virgins don’t give birth. No one is coming to “save you.” Angels aren’t real. It’s bad for you to subscribe to this weird stuff, which is really a form of propaganda for a belief system that long ago lost its currency.

6. Family
   Yes, of course some families are great and get along well. But many don’t, or they harbour petty and ancient rivalries, so Christmas becomes a locus of conflict and anxiety. There are probably good reasons you don’t meet more often across the year, and you should respect these.

7. Forced jollity
   You’re supposed to be overjoyed. But you aren’t. Forcing feelings is unhealthy and creates a sense of disconnect. If you dislike Christmas, then accept this and try to think of alternatives. Be truthful with others about this. Maybe that way things will change?

8. “I feel bad that I didn’t…”
   Fill in the missing space.

9. There’s no escape
   Everything is shut and you are stuck with nowhere to go. The weather is appalling. Your friends are all busy.

Next year, fly to Turkey, or Thailand... anywhere that doesn’t do this thing.

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Legs; link to youtube video by vongoval on weirdness

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Legs

"if you don`t reclaim your weirdness somewone will reclaim your life":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6UjwQyWmwY

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Mannofield, snow

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Mannofield, snow

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Glove

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Glove

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Mid Stocket Road, Aberdeen

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Mid Stocket Road, Aberdeen

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VIew from a flat, Winter, Rosemount

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View from a flat, Winter, Rosemount

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My strange life

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My strange life

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House at night, Rosemount

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House at night, Rosemount

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Station

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Station

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Sleeping pigeons, Rosemount, Aberdeen

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Sleeping pigeons, Rosemount, Aberdeen

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Shadow in a parking area

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Shadow in a parking area, Mannofield

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Van

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Van

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Equipment and materials for plein air painting when travelling

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My Moroccan and Spanish kit

I`m aware that I can pick up what I need in Casablanca or Seville so I'm not too bothered if I forget anything. 

I usually check where any art shops are before I set out.

Easel

This is a cheap Chinese easel. It is light and fine for sizes up to about A3, unless you are painting on a very heavy board. 

The plastic fittings on these snap and eventually the rubber shoes will loosen, fall off and get lost. But none of this really matters. Costing about £15, you are less likely to worry about it gettting stolen and, being simple, it is easy to fix any issues with a bullog clip or bit of wire, or whatever you can find.

I would caution against travel painting with costly equipment, baggage or clothes. Fancy stuff will make you a little nervous and you are more likely to become a target. Nice clothes get smudged with paint and then you have to fuss around cleaning them.

 I`ve never been robbed when travel painting, which I attribute to luck, a certain caution about where to paint, and not having anything worth stealing anyway. The latter is really the key, as when you have little of marketable value you go around with a certain basic confidence.

Boards

A variety of boards allowing for a variety of approaches.

I set out on these trips with certain ideas of what sort of work I will do, but then changes my mind along the way. That's part of the fun, surely?

Carrier and clips

The clips prevent a wet picture from touching the lid of the carrier.

The clips have coloured tags so that when they fall on some patch of long grass (as they will, inevitably) you can find them.

Paintbox, paints

Paints stored in a B & Q storage box. There are lovely wooden boxes on the market. These look great but are heavy and will crack if you drop them. They are the sort of things which are bought as retirement presents, I suppose-  later to appear on Ebay in mint condition.

My basic set of colours

I'm not religious about these, and my set is more or less the same dozen odd that most plein air artists would recommend. I use Winsor and Newton Artists paints. They have a good consistency, with lovely flow and density. Moreover, I am used to them.

Cerulean blue

Cobalt blue

Prussian blue

Ultramarine blue

Cadmium yellow

Naples yellow

Yellow ochre

Windsor yellow deep

Cadmium red

Cadmium orange

Alzarin crimson

Cadmium green

Burnt umber

Burnt Sienna

Titanium white

Mars black

Liquin 

This is a dependable drying agent and speeds up the surface drying of paint to as little as 24 hours (depending on paint thickness and pigment an any other mediums mixed in, obviously).

Linseed oil

An oil used to increase the fuidity of paints.

Paper palettes, corrugated ard palette holder and linseed oil dipper

The dipper is at the bottom left of the picture and has a metal lid. This gets oily and becomes difficult to remove. Ah well!

The pieces of corrugated card are used to carry the palettes around. The card palettes are cut from old

cereal boxes.

Brushes

Many and cheap. You probably won't be able clean brushes as thoroughly as you`d like to, and frankly I have found little rewad in spending masses on brushes for oil painting. 

Cleaning off oil paint is done with basic household soap.

Cloth

Vital for brush cleaning and also wiping paint off the boards. One of those unglamorous pieces of equipment that is most essential. Can be replaced with kitchen roll.

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Joaquina, Joaquina, sea, the end of March, 2016  SOLD

 oil on card 15 x 13 cm - Framed

This painting will be included in this collective oup exhibition, which will include the work of just over one hundred artists:

Showroom: the December open at no31

December 6, 2025 – December 16, 2025

Opening Saturday, 6th December, 3-6pm

Exhibition opening times:

From Saturday 6th to the 16th of December, every day from 1pm to 5pm

No31
29 Newton St

Duns

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Flowers, October

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Flowers, October, oil on card, 17.4 x 17.4 cm - available

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Sunspot

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Sunspot

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Rush matting in my room

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Rush matting in my room

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My hand, wrist (including the watch I bought in Quito) and legs

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My hand, wrist (including the watch I bought in Quito) and legs

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Creativity and my unconscious

 

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The Rider-Waite Tarot Empress

Creativity and my unconscious

Making art is a process where the conscious meets the unconscious, and both are displayed.  I want to liberating unconscious forces, have them flow through to my work. 

Why? Because I believe that the strongest work that I`ve done is so because it speaks about more than what is seen but also expresses my unconscious. It gains an additional force. If what I make lacks the element of unconscious revealing, then it is sterile, merely a craft product.

Let`s say I go painting and seek a motif to work from. I walk through a range of scenery before settling on a place to work from. My choice of motif is governed by conscious and unconcious forces, by what feels exciting, comfortable, interesting, mysterious or new to me. I`ll be influenced by known factors (I know I like trees) but also by unconscious forces (I am not sure why one specific cluster of birches draws me so). 

I am open to what resonates with me and to where that takes me, however odd that might be, however outside tradition or whatever decorative customs might govern expectations about art.

As I proceed to represent the motif, I am again affected by conscious and unconscious forces which drive my decisons- the size of the motif, the emphasis I give on particular colours, the surroundngs, the colours and textures and the way my brush describes the contours of the motif, giving one thing or another emphasis and so forth.

At one stage I might feel something is amiss, seek to abandon the piece as being "not quite right", while at others be strongly convinced that I am "getting somewhere". None of these can easily be articulated and they are really the result of unconscious forces which have their own mysterious laws.

 At least, this is the case if I allow the unconscious forces to operate by maintining openness to them.

To contrast: I might be an achitecture student and my artistic choices would be circumscribed by the need to represent a pre-selected building, showing its elevations clearly for the study of other architects, and to follow certain recongnised conventions to allow easy analysis of what I depict. 

Or I might have had the conscious notion that depicting a specific house in a certain style would be comercially appealing.

But I cannot force the unconscious to appear from nowhere. Indeed, the more I try the more it hides. All I can do is patiently go, and hope it rises. So I go and work habituually and sometimes this inner force appears, and at other times not.

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Developing rituals for making art

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Developing rituals for making art

The Riderr-Waite Tarot Magician

Art often has a ritual aspect it its making. The artist might always pick up a coffee on their way to the studio, always align the paints on the palettte in a certain way, take a meditative pause, as Japanese Sumi-e artists do before working- these rtiuals make them very aware that they are underting a special activity or  workspace.

If one wishes to make an art which is especially open to unconscious forces, which is best?

In my case, if I am to make art in the manner described previously in Creativity and my unconscious and go for a walk through a range of scenery, what form of ritualisation heps me to bring forth my unconscious? 

A useful ritual:

- should dimish expectations: this will make it easier to work, because one will be less nervous

- should be reassuring:  this helps one feel that there is something right about the task

- be constraining: Thus your focus is lmited, leds to greater concentration

Ritualisation could involve: packing certain art materials, chosing specific clothes, taking snacks. Thus I emphasise to myself how I am engaging in a specific activity with perculiar value. The ritual is known, safe and reassuring., yet at the same time posesses some mysterius element. Perhaps it should be a little boring? Perhaps going painting at the same time, every day might be beneficial? Perhaps the mysterious element is in the transformative artistic process itself?

I believe the construction of a safe space for unconscious flow can perhaps be achieved through limiting the cost of artistic failure to the point where it scarcely matters.

This means taking cheaper materials, making little fuss, lowering prepertion time and reducing travel. 

And I think a mental set in which failure to arrive in the "zone of unconscious flow" is essential: a sort of acceptence of failure, so that one oesn`t feel inhibited,

The ritual accomodating these needs must contain easefulness, so that mental flow fom the unconscious occurs as readily as possible. 

For me, this ritual is in the arrival at a place not too far off, a brief perusal of the different perspectives the rapid erection of an easel, the opening of simply one bag, then taking just one or two brushes, being careful with these items, placing them on a cloth. One then puts a little paint on the palette, and after a meditative pause begins work on the support which is of cheaper material, nothing costing very much...

Through such simple rituals a safe space is constructed allowing iunconscious forces to rise.

Then ending the work should have some process surely?

For me this means ariving at a state of recognition that the process has reached an end, putting away my things,after a pause, leaving. ON arrival home later reflectionthere  on the piece and the experience.

 If the piece is deemed satisfactory, it can be shown to the world, buththat is another game altogether.

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Trees, old railway, Aberdeen

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Trees, old railway, Aberdeen

oil on card, 12.4 x 15 cm - available

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Travel Wish list 2025

 

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One of the nicest things is to look out a window at a new view...

The globe

Travel Wish list 2025

Fingers crossed and 2026 might allow for more wanderings.

This is my updated travel wish list: it hadn`t been updated since 2020.

I`ve scored off a few, and added others. 

My logic, more or less, is to prioritize places that are good for painting across the year, and ideally not expensive. That means a lot of Europe is best avoided. There is also Brexit, or "Brex-shit" as it might better be termed, which prevents lengthy periods in Europe without visa hassles.

As I am now in the UK, South America is a lot more expensive to get to. And I did visit almost all of the South American places on the 2020 list.

Moreover, now Asia is closer and cheaper.

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R= revisiting

Spain R

Cádiz R

Seville R

Valencia

Granada R

Jerez de la Frontera 

UK R

Portmeirion - the cost of even the simplest hotel in the UK is so high (especially considering he tiny fusty pit you`ll receive for your money) that the chances of my crossing the UK to visit this curious place soon are low

Finland

I suspect this is a very unfriendly country and that puts me off enormously. Orderly, costly and not much fun. I fear the same for Sweden

Sweden

Norway R

USA R

I dread being harassed by the USA`s border security, who were gratuitously obnoxious in New York a few years ago. It could well be worse now. Ergo: on hold

Paterson, New Jersey

Northern California - Redwood trees. Sierra Nevada. Need I say more?

Montana

New York R - always seems to surprise me

Nevada - This and the next two are here because they have such bizarre landscapes

Arizona

New Mexico

Italy R

Rome R - I love this city and want to paint more bridges along the river

Turin R -I regret not really seeing it properly when I went twenty-five years ago

Ferrara -This and below are here because of de Chirico

Mantua

Palermo - baroque architecture

Mexico 

 Oaxaca - both seem to be interesting, though crime is a bit of an issue for the plein air painter

Mexico City

Turkey R

Antalya- These may be a good  autumn /end of the year option 

Fethiye 

 

Japan 

France R

Paris R 

Bordeaux

Brittany

Nimes

Lyons

Marseille- this is one of the few French places whose reputation suggests some sort of vitality. I suspect the others of being enervated, sterilised, joyless.

Switzerland R

Mountains

Bern

Zurich

The expense of Europe is very off-putting. Nonetheless, the idea of spending a concentrated three weeks in the Alps painting is very appealing. I want to visit Kunsthaus, Zurich. Also, I want to look at more of Bocklin, Hodller- which is largely in Basel, while Klee has he Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.

Armenia

I have a romantic idea about this place But the reality, so informed by conflict, might be somewhat exhausting.

Nepal

This is a follow-on from India this year. It`s cheap, often beautiful and visually exciting. Why not?

India R 

Mussoorie R -  I`d happily revisit for about ten days

Udaipur R - a very agreeable place to revisit for a week or two 

Pushkar -  I could do a week or two here again though it`s less interesting than Udaipur. 

Kerala - Both see pleasant and cheap and, apparently, not as filthy as the north of India

Goa  - like Kerala, also probably very touristy, but perhaps that is ok for a few weeks?

Puducherry /Pondicherry - it might be a bit polished but so what?

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