Roblog

November 17, 2007

Catharine's Shoes on a blog

Look at this

say no more really!

Posted by robbie at 7:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Catharine's Shoes on a blog

Look at this

say no more really!

Posted by robbie at 7:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2007

May-August 2007

So the last four months? Where are the blogs? I don’t know what happened but here is a resume to get me up to date.

May 2007

I moved into the studio in Morningside with Kruti. It took me a while to equip it as it had proviously been a ceramics workshop. I had it all planned out when I would go down after work and my days off. i had this show to paint for November so i had to get a move on. Things started well and I made a few studies, but really i was not believing in myself and was just going through the motions. The work was fairly poor and I kept making excuses not to go to the studio. Work at eca was pretty hectic as I was preparing the brochure for next years classes and getting ready for the Summer School onslaught.

Catharine visited one more time as she had a job interview for an art teacher at a local school in Edinburgh. The interview went well, but she did not get and actually her heart was not into it as she just wants to get on a paint.

I spent the end of May looking a new bigger place to live for when Catharine moves up so we have enough room for both of us and our stuff. I looked at quite a few before I found this wonderful huge flat off Leith Links.I had an ordeal trying to get the secured with the leasing agency but eventually did.

June 2007

With the new flat secured for an end of June move, and work hotting up for the summer school, my ability to make any art at all was virtually nil. I decided that I needed to just get through the next month and get moved and settled. I also decided that having the studio in Morningside was not working for me and it would be even more difficult to get there when i moved to Leith (other end of the city).

I had one brief sojourn down to Reading for Catharine’s School end of year ball which was also her last day in her job. It was good to get out of Edinburgh, but I must say that I do not miss Reading very much (apart from Catharine that is). The ball was good although the whole weekend was very tiring. Catharine was about to go out to Cyprus for the whole summer to work and paint so it was going to be a long time before we saw each other again.

This is the first time in my life that I was going into the summer without a break of any kind - and it took a bit of mental adjustment. However, once I had stopped worrying about how I was going to get the paintings done I was fine.

July 2007

The summer school started to rain and sun in equal measures and it was a full on 6 weeks of introductions, teaching, planning, hanging exhibitions, dealing with the odd complaint, and so on. My teaching weeks went well and it was nice to finally get back into it. It certainly got me in the mood for getting my own work done. On top of this, I moved into our new flat single handedly - yet another van with all my studio stuff and home stuff. The Edinburgh Festival had just begun so it was tricky parking and all my friends were either working or away (Apart from Donald who helped me one day thanks for that D). The flat is amazing and has lots of space and is very inspiring visually. It put in mind work I used to do back in the late 80s when I was student.

August 2007.

Finished off at the summer school, got the new brochure for term time classes published and finally got some time off in the middle of the month. I had done no festival events or any socializing as such. It was just a relief to get through it and have some time off. I have three weeks off and decided to make a load of drawings using the interior of my new flat as subject matter. This last week has been great as I have found my rhythm and hunger to make art and so far it is going well. See Facebook pages for pictures of the new work in progress.

However, I have just heard the sad news that the Queen Street Gallery in Emsworth, where I was due to show my work in November has closed down due to the owner, Michael Northey being seriously ill. While I am disappointed not to able to show my new work, I am devastated about the owner who had set up a very brave and ambitious venture. My thoughts go out to Michael and his family at this time.

So now I still have some time off to continue the painting without the pressure of a show. I just have to readjust my motivation. Catharine will be joining me here in a few weeks, so I should just get on with it and enjoy being a bachelor until then.

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April 28, 2007

Cyprus 2002 on YouTube

I am only now coming out of my flu bug which really did knock me out for the last two week. I struggled on at work, taking some time off… and when i have time off, my the devil makes work for idle hands! After doing the eca 1989 video, I started to get out all my old videos which I never had time to sort out. An in this age of YouTube, it is great that I can finally share some of them. I had done all this footage from Cyprus College of Art in 2002 (when i was still living in Chichester). So, I put it all together into a 15 minute montage over music (2 parts on youtube as they wont let you go over 10 minutes) and emailed all the people who were at Cyprus College of Art that year. Anyway, it gives a little insight into how I produced the work for this period. I only took a little footage in Limassol 2005 and none in 2006, so I doubt I will add them to the site. Anyway here they are:

The good news is that at last I am going to show a selection of all my Cyprus work in 2008/09 in the Otter Gallery at University of Chichester. It will be good to finally have a show there after my time in the area.

NEW STUDIO

I am moving into a new studio in Edinburgh next week - a space in Morningside - so at last I can get on with some oil painting for the show at the Queen Street Gallery (Emsworth) for November.

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April 17, 2007

Easter, the flu and a video from 1989

I had a great easter week off. I got my art at least started with a few drawings and then Catharine came up for the Easter weekend which was lovely. We walked and walked, went to galleries, shops, pubs and restaurants as you should on a bank holiday.

However, almost as soon as she had gone, I was struck down by a nast flu/bug thing. Last week I was hanging the CCS lifelong learners exhibition with my collegue Derek Maguire and by the end of the week I could hardly walk. So this last weekend was spent being a bit miserable in bed. I did go into work briefly yesterday for the opening of the ccs, but it was a bit premature. So, I have been off work again today and am now feeling better (almost).

So, to keep me amused, I started a little project I have been meaning to start whenever I am stuck at home not able to do much; I started to digitise some of my old home movie tapes, so that I could put them on DVD. This evening, I found the video footage that was taken in my final year as a student at Edinburgh College of Art. This was actually shot by Liz Ogilivie, one of the lecturers, and I am not quite sure how I have a copy on tape (maybe I nicked it and it is the only one). Anyway, I decided to put some of it together into a little short. it shows painting students in my year working and some of their degree shows. And of course it shows me as a young student. I have put it onto You Tube, as I thought it might be of interest to student contemporaries of my time. For the record the clip shows the following people; John Brown, Cath Binns, Angelina Berry, Jane Hyslop, Nerys Ellery, John Houston (Lecturer), Greg Magee, Susan Pettinger, Bill Breckinbridge, Cathy Carpenter, Andrew Parkinson, Linda Henniker and Heather Mackenzie. it also features the work of Claire Banks, David Howard, Paul Rooney, but who are not in the video. I think that is it. I am now colleagues again with Jane Hyslop and John Brown and still see David Howard who is in Edinburgh. As for the rest I am not sure what they are up to. Perhaps they will discover they are on this video and get in touch.. (and tell me to take it down). Anyway here it is…

Music on video: Fools Gold by The Stone Roses and Last of the International Playboys by Morrissey, both from 1989.

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April 1, 2007

Website updated (at last)

I have finally updated my website. This now includes the work I did in Cyprus last July, such as it is. Most of it is unresolved and lay in my Oxford studio for months waiting for the hand of god of intervene and take it further - but nothing ever happened and then I was ‘wheeched’ off to Edinburgh and it all got stored away. But it is good to give it an airing now.
I have also updated my cv, forthcoming events and added more links - so it feel like I am at last starting to be an artist again after months of galavanting.

Well, I have now been in Edinburgh exactly 2 months and I have not galavanted anywhere. This must be a record in recent times. I am now nicely settled here and have been busy getting my head down getting to grips with my new job. After a period of intense workload, things have now quietened down for Easter and I have a week off. I am going to try to paint a little this week to get me back into it and hopefully I will blog some of the progress next weekend. (shout if I don’t). Catharine is coming up for the Easter weekend, so it would be great to have something to show her.

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November 22, 2006

edinburgh college of art

Well here we are at the end of November and yet again no blog for ages. Perhaps I should give it up. Maybe now every tom, dick and harry is doing one, the appeal has worn off. But when I am not painting, there seems little point in blogging, as that is what I want to blog about. So, I will try to catch up on myself now.

Well I did not get the job at Glasgow School of Art, and yes I was very disappointed. It made me give myself a long hard look at what I am doing in Oxford. I have never really liked the place, and despite managing to keep painting, I really feel soulless here. The job at Brookes has also become significantly harder. We have gone from 65 to 90 students and lost staffing. Yes, October was a month of distress and panic about what I am doing here. My father in Aberdeenshire is need of family support due to ill health and here I am living and working in a place I can barely afford, doing a job that has completely consumed my time. This has also been a time of soul searching and challenge for Catharine and I too. But we are good.

So the last six or seven weeks have been just about getting through the grind of going to work and getting though the day. I have had no energy to paint alas.

There was light at the end of the tunnel however. I had also applied for a lecturing job at Edinburgh College of Art. I has thought that I was unlikely to get it, but I was invited for interview last week. I crept up without telling a soul, did my interview, and duly got the job. I am shocked and delighted. The job has a challenging remit, but one I am more than capable of, and one that will stretch me. But also, I am delighted to be coming home to Scotland, after my eight year sojourn in the South of England. I do get about, but I am hoping that I will now settle in Edinburgh. I will start early next year..

Other than that, not much else to report - other than the minutia of daily life. One of my last duties at Brookes before I leave is organising the trip to Madrid in Early January. I started the job with a trip too, so it is a nice full circle.

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September 29, 2006

no news

still no news!

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September 28, 2006

Last weeks of being homeless, a new home and back to work!!

Ah, a month has gone by and no blog again. Seems to be just the way at the minute. So, once again here is a brief resume of the last four weeks…

Saturday 2nd September

Catharine and I were living in her wee house in Reading which was a building site with no running hot water or electricity downstairs. But the end of the building work was due and we had nowhere else to run to. I could not move into my new flat in Oxford for a couple weeks so I had resigned myself to commuting. On this Saturday I dashed down to Emsworth near Chichester to take some paintings to the Queen Street Gallery for a group show which was opening on the next tuesday.

Monday 4th September

A new semester at Oxford Brookes and with it came a new boss, Alison, who is just fantastic and despite just arriving the week before, has got hold of what is required with gusto. The only thing is, is that we have far more students than we were expecting - over 90 - and we normally have around 65. So, the first week was extremely taxing trying to find ways to accommodate them all. We need more staff!!

Tuesday 5th September

After work I headed back to Reading and Catharine and I zoomed down to Emsworth for the opening of the Queen Street Gallery show. It was a 160 mile round trip and a bit ridiculous on a work night, but it was good to catch up with old friends and colleagues from Chichester. The show itself was a lively mix and it was very busy.

6th - 8th Sept

A haze of commuting from Reading to Oxford, no hot water, washing in the swimming baths, inducting students and being fed up of having no home..

Weekend 9th and 10th Sept.

What did I do? hmm - scooted to Oxford to sort out stuff in studio and look at flat I am moving into… Sunday we went to Cookham to visit the Stanley Spencer Museum, which I have alway wanted to see.. weather still very hot i think.

Week of 9th - 15th September

Another grueling week - did get some respite by staying at Claire and Richard’s house for a couple of nights - but totally exhausted with the level of work at Brookes. And I am supposed to be part time!!! Good job I was moving house this weekend!!!

Weekend of 16th and 17th

Went through to Oxford early on Saturday morning to get hire van for the move. How many times have I done that in my life? I will have now lived in about 26 houses in my life! Drove the van to my studio and my Brookes to pick up my life (what is left of it) and then returned to Reading for the night. Back to Oxford on Sunday morning with the van to move into my nice new flat. I had to kit it out with a few essentials so it was a fruitful shop in Wilkinsons for me.. I had developed a bad back doing all this and the stress of it, but a struggled through and it was just bliss when i finally sat down in my new flat and just listened to the peace… This is my first place all on my own since I left Chichester in 2003. Fan-bloody-tastic!!!!

Week of 18th - 22nd September.

So, another new routine to develop. I got back on my bike and had a better week getting to work - the weather is still extraordinary for late september. Still chaotic at work with all the students, but things beginning to settle down. And at last I have my studio back now all the stuff has gone.

However, to add to the mix, on Tuesday of this week, i received a phone call from Glasgow School of Art letting me know that I had been shortlisted for the job I had applied for many weeks ago. Bloody hell - but I was delighted as I really want to get back to Scotland. So, more travel arrangements had to be made!! My father, in Aberdeenshire, has recently been very unwell and is currently in hospital for tests. So, I am going to go and see him after I have been for my interview in Glasgow next Thursday.

Weekend of 23rd and 24th September.

Utterly run down after the last few weeks with a bad back and feeling listless. Thank god I could hide away in my flat. i did manage to get to the studio to prepare some work for my forthcoming interview.

Week of 25th September.

As I was taking Wednesday to Friday off to go to Glasgow, I worked on Monday and Tuesday at Brookes and made sure everything would be covered in my absence. On Wednesday, I coached it through to Heathrow airport and flew up to Glasgow. John and Ciara have kindly put me up for a couple of nights. So, today is Thursday and I have just had my interview at Glasgow school of Art. I had forgotten what a fantastic place it is and I think my interview went well, but I don’t know yet. I have just had a quick scoot around the city centre, and am trying not to get my hopes up as I would love to live here.

Well that is it for now. Tomorrow, I am hiring yet another car to go up to Aberdeenshire to visit my dad. The back to oxford on Monday.

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August 26, 2006

Flickr

For good or bad, and with the kind assistance of interface architect and web guru Dug, I have added my Flickr pictures to this blog. This could be very dangerous, as all I now have to do is take a picture with my camera phone, press a button and bingo, it is on the blog..

I will update for the last ten days later on. Must pack for a wedding in Dorset.

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June 14, 2006

words are the english disease

It has been a very intense few weeks since I last blogged: getting the pictures finished and off to the framer, the Brookes Foundation diploma shows and other stuff I dont want to go into here. So apologies for my lack of posts.

I will shortly update the site with the new work which opens on the 24th June. Then I am off to Cyprus for a months. cant wait as I am completely spent.

I am just watching the BBC’s Imagine programme about Howard Hodgkin. Alan Yentob is talking to him in his studio and on his journeys in India. Yentob quotes him as saying:

words are the English disease

Apparently he was refering to the english propensity to over analyse and contextual art. I was intrigued as I have often had thoughts like this since moving from Scotland in 1999 in the context of collegues and students I have worked alongside; The English do love to talk about art - but perhaps in a way which negates the power of the art, as if the art cannot stand up for itself.

So I went digging for further quotes from Hodgkins. I found this from an interview by John Tusa from the BBC Radio 3 website

I think that words are often extraneous, perhaps, to what I do, but I work in a country where words seem to be paramount as a form of communication and I think that if I didn’t talk about my work at all, people might not even bother to look at it.

Really?

think it’s as serious as that. In other countries, in New York for example, when I had a very large exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum , there was no need for verbal communication, as far as I could make out. People would come and talk to me about my pictures, but they understood exactly what they were all about.

The words of an older orthodoxy perhaps and some might say a cop out, but I am sure he speaks for many of us who make art to say what cannot be said or to reveal what cannot be seen.

Today I had to adhere to the four pages of EDEXCEL assessment criteria for each of my 34 students on the foundation. Everything must be explicit and nothing left to chance or not said. Every move and thought must be logged.. everything accountable. At their age I was in the trust of teachers who relied on their experience and wisdom to make judgement on what I did. Many would say this is too open to abuse and prejudice, and not transparent… Perhaps this is the English Disease.

On a lighter note I am enjoying the diversion of the world cup. I love playing up to the ‘Anyone but England’ stuff as a Scot in the heart of England. Of course I dont really mean it. It just gives me a get out clause if England really stuff it up badly and I can gloat about how useless they are. The hype about the England team is nauseating, and when they play badly as they did against Paraguay, the bleating here is immense. But, if they play great football and there fans dont live up to their stereotype, then I will be delighted and might even cheer them on. Just dont tell any of my friends in Aberdeen.

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May 2, 2006

New Server for www.robbiebushe.co.uk

I have been having much trouble with my web server of late. Therefore, I have moved my entire site over to a new one. My address ‘www.robbiebushe.co.uk’ will still take you to the home page, but all the other pages are now on new pages all beginning with www.robbiebushe.co.uk/. So, if you had certain pages (with asrs94.dsl.pipex.com) bookmarked they will all now take you to my home page. These holding pages will only be active for a short time, to allow people to make the switch. Other than that noting has changed. I will not put the new work up on the galleries pages until it is all complete and in the exhibition in June.

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April 25, 2006

server down

As some of you will have noticed, my site has been down for the last week. Problems beyond my control!. I will blog latest progress in the studio in the next day or two.

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March 25, 2006

locked in a cold dank basement!

Phew! Nearly four months locked up in a basement and not one of you one noticed. No computer and only cabbage soup for sustenance (quite tasty actually). Don’t feel guilty; I know you were all really busy. Anyway, it gave me time to consider things.. mainly how to get out of this small dank room with no light.

Well it might have been true!

Internet Silence:

I was wondering whether I would ever blog again. I just got into the habit of not doing it; I was making so little art over these dark cold winter months and I made a pact with myself only to blog about my art and anything related. Well, the world didn’t grind to a halt and here I am out of my hibernation and ready to go again.

The cold empty months of silence:

So should I leave December 2005 – March 2006 as ‘not written about’? Keep these months enigmatic and secret? I should really. But I am crap at keeping secrets so here goes:

December 2005

After my mammoth stint of painting which paid off with a decent amount of sales and the purchase of a nice new iPod and Power Book, the end of term (Semester actually) at Brookes eventually came and I was a spent force. My good friend Claire in Oxford was kind enough to lend me her wee Ford Ka so I could have transport over Christmas. I went down to spend Christmas with Claire and David, Mae and Harper in Hastings. It was great to be back and it was a lovely Christmas. There was a fair bit of me being ‘Uncle Robbie’ and ‘Mac Support Guy’. I even made one of my film epics with Mae and Harper, but I have not got round to editing that yet.

(Edited later on and on you tube:)

I was meant to complete a website for the studios I am in Oxford, but that got lost in the mire of the holidays. We even got two nights of thick snow!! It was beautiful and I had never seen it like that on the south coast – More like Aberdeen. I went to visit Suzie and Erin in Emsworth either just before or after new year – it is all abit of a haze now. New year itself was very low key, but I had a lovely evening with dinner and friends at Claire and Richard’s in Oxford. I do tend to get a little maudlin and melancholic around New Year. It is so dark, cold and we are meant to enjoy ourselves!!! Oh well, I got through it.

January 2006

Back to work at Brookes; this started with the Field Trip on a coach through Belgium and Holland. This marked the first anniversary of my working in Oxford. I still don’t love the place, but I am coming to terms with it and now have a few wonderful people around. People help a lot in these circumstances. Anyway, I digress! I had organised this year’s trip and was a bit stressed out for a lot of it. It meant a very early start from Oxford, and without giving you a blow by blow (Roblog fans will know my obsession with travel details) account, the basic itinerary was this:

60 students, four staff and four ex students without whom, the trip would have imploded – thank you.

Oxford to Dover. Ferry from Dover to Calais. Coach to Gent to visit museum. Gent to Brussels. Four nights in dodgy hostel which had blocked drains and toilet issues. Lots of food, drink and museums. Night club in basement and I did dance on occasions. Coach driver (whose name escapes me) was a decent fellow. Students well behaved. Day trip to Antwerp – liked it better than Brussels, which is a bit like a middle-aged fairy cake. Coach from Brussels to Amsterdam: we were meant to stop off at Eindhoven and somewhere else. But we got stopped by police on route due to our double-decker coach wobbling along the motorway. We had to stop and go for service staion pizza and then sit in garage eating vending machine food. Coach got fixed – we got to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was great! Three nights in a great Hostel. Lots more art and culture obviously. Could not find nice ‘Brown Bar’ I knew for food after walking for hours. Lots more walking. Over ‘indulged’ on last night and vowed on coach home (Euro tunnel) that I had better get a bit more healthy on return! Which we did intact. Well done Robbie.

So, ok a bit blow by blow! (sorry).

The rest of January, I spent back at work, swimming, trying to paint, eating healthily and trying to lose a bit of weight. Also still spending too much time playing with my new Power Book. (but it is fantastic)

February 2006

Ah February. Excellent month and full of life changing stuff. And big decisions. Here goes;

So the first thing was that I had an invitation to work out in Cyprus College of Art for a whole year. From Sept 2006 – August 2006 to be exact. Teaching mornings, getting accommodation and studio thrown in – not much money. Well, lots to consider and my gut was saying to go for it. This winter has been the coldest, wettest and darkest in living memory (or at least since I left Aberdeen in 1999). The idea of having a whole year on a Mediterranean island with all that light and time and space to paint sounding great. Or Oxford with all its funny ways?? I had virtually made up my mind when a something even more extraordinary happened. But more of that in moment.

In mid Feb, I went up to Scotland for a long weekend. This was mainly to celebrate my Mum’s 70th birthday and she was going to be at my brother’s in Edinburgh to celebrate it. I booked a cheap flight to Edinburgh early one Friday, but I made things very complicated when I decided to also visit Aberdeen for one night, as I discovered that Joe Fan was having an exhibition on that Friday. So after my flight (more travel coming up Roblog junkies) I hopped on a ‘Megabus’ to Aberdeen and my good friend Ashley met me and I had a great afternoon with him down at the Inversneckie Café at the beach. Went to visit Joe in his studio and then on to his house to meet Fiona and Maisy and then I popped up to see Bary McGlashan and his wife Wendy who lived just up the road from where Joe’s show was. This was at the Rendezvous Gallery, an idiosyncratic place which looks more like an antique shop. Anyway I got to catch up with plenty of old friends including Joyce, Michael, and Clare. Joe’s show was great and it was marvelous to catch up with these wonderful people – who always make me feel so welcome when I return.

I stayed with Ashley and we already had a plan for him to drive me down to Edinburgh in his Mum’s car; the deal was we were to take his mum to St Andrews so she could visit her Aunt. So that is indeed what we did. It was lovely spending time with Ashley. He is going through a bit of a tough time, but we were able to have a great laugh and good chat on the way down. We were speeding down to Edinburgh so we could make it to Jane Hyslop’s exhibition opening at the Open Eye Gallery. Oh yes another one – just a coincidence. Again this was a great chance to catch up some dear old friends I see too seldom. Ashley was staying with Dave so he went off with him while I eventually got to my brother Chris’ house. My mum and my aunt Elsie spent a great night dining and playing cards with Chris’ family. I had to stay in a B&B as there was no room at the inn. Sunday brought a coffee and cakes with Ashley and Dave at the Portrait Gallery and then the Museum of Modern Art. Lots more coffee and cakes. Then Ashley went back to Aberdeen and my Mum returned to Stranraer.

I was not due to fly back south until late Monday night so I spent the day with my nephew Lyle and niece Erin making one of my now infamous motion picture epics with a camcorder and iMovie. (Lord of the Rings inspired). I think Chris had to finish it off the next day).

Flew home.

Ok – the even more extraordinary thing? Well what I have not said is that someone was beginning to come into my life during this amazing February. People often tell me that love finds you when you are not looking for it – always told them to shut up. Here I was mentally off to Cyprus and I was sorted. Well I had not counted on meeting Catharine. But am so delighted that I did.

Catharine is an artist in Reading and she also teaches part time in a local school. Right from the start it has felt so right. I had just about given up on having real romantic love in my life. She is wonderful and she feels like the person I have been waiting all my life for. I did not start this blog to reveal all my intimate secrets – my students read this you know – but I could not let the events of the last month pass without shouting it from the rooftops. Therefore, I am not going to go to Cyprus and I declined their offer. There you have it. Sorry to those friends who are hearing this here first.

Well, hopefully this blog will be back to normal now that I have got all this out. As things stand, I am going to stay at Brookes for the time being. I have work to complete for the Sarah Wiseman Gallery for June. Spring should be here soon and with it better light which is important for my paintings.

So, I am very happy – there is a tomorrow and a day after that….

Feel free to leave a stream of comments below…

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December 16, 2005

all quiet on the blogging front

It is a curious thing, this blog malarky.. If you dont blog for a week or two, people start to get concerned that you are ok. Well the truth is that I have just not felt the need to do it in recent weeks and to be honest, I have been a bit of a spent force. I am also trying to keep this blog ‘on message’; that is to say that only write stuff that is relevent to my artwork. But I cant now resist writing a ‘life’ update - call it my wee xmas present to all you Roblog fans..

Well where did I leave you? Oh yes my pictures went off and I was very busy at work. Well then I turned 41 on the 6th Dec. I went out with a few of my Oxford friends for a lovely Tapas and also went down to Hastings for the weekend to see my sister’s family. Nice once again to be back by the sea. I also went through to the John Martin Gallery for the opening of the ‘Into the Jungle’ exhibition. This was a fun night with Billy and Dug at the gallery in Chelsea where the gallery people were either dressed up as gorillas or in suitable jungle attire. They were also serving wonderful cocktails and jungle style crudities. the exhibition was actually excellent and I am pleased to say that my pictures stood up well in the company (I have now sold 2) and it was nice to be able to text Barry in Aberdeen that he had sold his large painting for a decent amount of money. I also believe that i have sold a couple in the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. So, it has been quite a satisfiying period after all my hard work.

Anyway.. I thought after my two frugal years after quitting Chichester that I could spalsh out on a new Powerbook and iPod… which arrived last tuesday. And nothing has become between me and them since. In fact I am typing this in my studio as I have just discovered that I can get a wireless connection from somehere near my studio.. it ebbs and flows a bit.. it is there none the less. That is a bit of a result. Or perhaps the death of painting (in my studio). I am actually gagging to get back behind the palette so to speak.. but energy levels very low and have a bad cold. And it is Christmas! (soon).

Well lets hope that I can continue to make progress with the paintings in 2006 and that I can paint and little more and teach a little less..

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November 29, 2005

Nothing to report

It has been a very quiet week for me after an intense period getting all my pictures completed and sent off. As I predicted, I came down with some kind of bug and the weather has been extremely cold so it has been a very lethargic week. All I want to do is hybernate! Things are much busier at Brookes, and there is much to do in organising the field trip to Brussels and Amsterdam for early January. The students have also now specialised into their choosen subject and we now have an intense period as they begin to get their portfolios together for degree applications.

I now have a completely bare walled studio - which is quite intimidating. I have a series of pictures to make for the Sarah Wiseman Gallery for a group show in May. So that gives me another realistic deadline to work for. Therefore I need another few sessions of drawing from life in Oxford. I think I may now concentrate less on the landscape and more on the types of people and situations I encounter. But I have said that before and things will change…

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October 31, 2005

website updated

I am sure you will have noticed that I have updated my site to include the most recent work. I was too tired today to do anything except mess about on the computer… One of the reasons I do this blog and update my site regularly is so that people come back and see what has changed. So many websites , and particularly art websites, seem to stay the same for years, which is very annoying. I reackon I get more ‘traffic’ due to people coming back every now and again. It is always good for the ego…

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September 19, 2005

spinning the plates

You know that old caberet routine where a guy in a tux tries to spin loads of plates on rods? He has to keep checking them all and giving each one a wee spin to keep them all going and stop them from falling off and breaking. Last week’s teaching at Brookes has been a bit like that. There are over 65 students and everything is new to them and they all need a gentle spin every 20 minutes or so. It was a very long an intensive week doing drawing excerises. But it was highly enjoyable too and made the days go very fast.

I did manage to get down to the studio most evenings after I had a wee swim. I have working on ideas for pictures for the forthcoming Christmas show at the John Martin Gallery with the theme Rosseau’s Jungle. This is to coincide with a show of Henri Rosseau work at the Tate Britain. I have just been looking at my extremely old Rosseau book (had since I was 15) and tried to get into the spirit of his work. This has been quite fun and you can see the results in the below picture:

I am trying to use Oxford as my jungle setting and use cats (and specifically the one I live with in my new home) as the animals. But maybe I will have better ideas in the week ahead.

Oh I had a nice trip out to Hook Norton on Sunday with my friend Lucy. The landscape there in the Cotswalds is fantastic and we went to see some wonderful standing stones. I did a few wee sketches but I think I have perhaps done enough Pagan pictures for a while.

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September 10, 2005

moving again

This week i moved out of student halls and into my new room in a houseshare with Rachel and Michael. Rachel is the rowing correspondent for the the Daily Telegraph and has been very welcoming to me as I settle in. I have done a fair bit of socialising of late and it is now lovely to get to know a few more people in Oxford. Right now I am in the middle of moving my stuff which was in my studio up to my new home in a white van. I think I will always be hiring white vans for as long as I live.

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September 6, 2005

New students!

Another quickie to say that the new intake of foundation students are here at Brookes. 60 of them so far and so far it has been us talking at them with all the induction stuff and endless bureaucracy. We take them to London tomorrow and I am also finally moving into a new home as well, fairly near my studio. It will be nice to get all my stuff out of my studio so I can get on with some painting!!! and have a home again for the first time in over a month.

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August 26, 2005

Website Updated

I have finally updated my website to include work from 2005 in Oxford and Cyprus.

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August 21, 2005

wherever i lay my hat...

Just a quickie. Spent a lovely week staying at Claire and Richard’s family home in Oxford while I looked for a new place to stay. They were so kind and made me feel extremely welcome as well as feeding me wonderful food. Went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Claire and her son, Alex and friend Frankie. I loved it! Especially the first half of the movie.

I found a new place to stay in Oxford, but wont be able to move in until the 5th September, so I am going to stay in student halls until then and visit friends at weekends. I went down to Hastings this weekend to visit my sister’s family. I haven’t been to Hastings since March, and it has been a lovely weekend by the sea catching up with some of those I met here when I lived here last year. It was the end of the Hastings Old Town Festival and we managed to catch the cavelcade on Saturday afternoon. There are so many truly extraordinary events throughout the year in Hastings.

Back to Oxford tomorrow and back to work at Brookes in earnest..

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July 17, 2005

serendipity

(Pictures added on the 21st July)

I am sitting an internet cafe in Paphos. The same one I used all the time when I was here in 2002. I am a bit of a nostalgia fiend so it is nice to be here again. Had a great weekend here and it has got me thinking how much serendipity there has been for me on my trip so far…

First there was Nick turing up in Limassol; Nick had been in Lemba with me 2002. Great bloke who cut my hair the other day as he is also a good barber; best cut I have had in years! Then there are three people from Chichester in Limassol; Tom, Lucy and Kate. None of them actually trained in Chichester, but they were all brought up there and know all my old haunts. Most suprising is that Kate’s mother is studying fine art at UCC in Chichester and I taught her in my last year teaching there. Then, there is Annabelle and Elliot, who are from Oxford Brookes. Annabelle has just finished fine art and Elliot is still study architecture. Annabelle did not enjoy Brookes and she is certainly not enjoying Limassol. I don’t think the life of an artist is for her.

The Great Wall of Lemba at Cyprus College of Art

And now this weekend in Lemba, there were two students that I taught in Aberdeen at Grays School of Art. Nicola, I taught way back in 1994 and Chris was in his first year in my last year there in 1999. It was great to see them both and it was particularly nice to see Nicola’s work which I have always admired. Nicola is now also teaching at my old school in Aberdeen working alongside my old art teacher!! My talk there went down well and we all went out for food and drinks after.

Painting by Nicola Galloway in Lemba

Joe Fan came along to my slide talk. I met up with Joe, Fiona and their daughter Maisy who are on holiday here near Lemba. I swam in their hotel pool both days which was the same pool I swam in with my ex Suzie when she visited me here in 2002. Joe was in great form and it was weirdly nice to meet him in a place he knows so well. His own paintings are full of cyprus images without being documentary.

Joe Fan enjoying a refreshment

Will post some pics tomorrow, but now I must go and find out where my taxi back to Limassol will pick me up. Bye.

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June 28, 2005

on the suffering of fools

I have always thought of those that take the position never ‘to suffer fools glady’ are a terribly dull and rude lot. For, to my mind, it is the fools, the dafties and the eccentrics who are the people you would rather be trapped with. The fine educated people of Oxford generally dont suffer fools too well. In my time here, I have too often witnessed a people who never give much away and smile through a saccharine grin at any sign of foolishness. What is the point of being educated in one of the finest places of learning and yet have no empathy with humanity?

I am fairly proud of being a bit of a fool; it is a liberating position to take on life. Therefore, it has been with a great deal of struggle that I have lived through these past few months in Oxford. I certainly have not been able to blog as I feared my ranting at all those who needed ranting at would only be counterproductive.

However, I have managed to claw out some assemblage of a life in recent weeks. I have still done very little art of note despite spending most of my time in the studio.

Anyway - I am now off to Cyprus for the whole of July and I expect I will be able to provide a more positive account of my life soon.

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March 23, 2005

about time i blogged....

I expect you are all wondering why there has been no blog for a while…?! So engrossed in new painting? (not really) Having a great new social life in Oxford? (not yet) Nothing really to say? (more like it). I am typing this as I try to recover from a mystery virus which has wiped me out for the last few days… which has left me with a back back and I can hardly walk…

So what have I been up to since the 6th March? Well work at Brookes has been pretty intense as the students prepared their UCAS applications and I had to help with their personal statements and write their references… Gosh it is amazing how little grammar is taught in schools nowadays. Except if you are a regular roblogger, you will have noticed how lazy with grammar i have become. The last three weeks have been good in that I have not had to travel anywhere and I have hardly stepped foot out of my work, home, studio triangle. Oh except to see a couple of films… ‘Aquatic Life’ and ‘Team America’. Both worth seeing. Also kept up my swimming at the excellent Rosenblatt pool (until I got ill that is).

But what I have most enjoyed about my new Oxford life is getting out and about on my bicycle, which was always a bit more difficult in Hastings due to the terrible hills. I did spent some of my weekends drawing about and about the town, but have become very rusty and unfocused.. Something did strike me as a potential area for development… Oxford is full of unfulfilled promise. So many of the Oxford University spaces are glimpsed through teasing small doors on much larger ornate wooden gates. Mortals like you and me are not allowed to venture into these seemingly idylic cloistered courtyards. So Ithink there is some visual and human potential for mirth and myth in this idea…

Anyone noticed that I have changed server for my website? If you had specific pages bookmarked you will now be automatically redirected to the homepage. You see I was previously using someone else’s web space and now I hae my own again. The address is still the same however (www.robbiebushe.co.uk).

Well, I get a week off next week for Easter. Chance to get stuck into my painting and make the new studio feel more like my second home. Hope I will be feeling better by then…

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March 6, 2005

Oxford Life (at last)

So. My first week as a resident in Oxford is over! Well I think the first people to notice the difference in me are my students. Being able to get up at 8 instead of 6 does make a big difference to my temperament.

Last Monday, it actually took a surprisingly short time to get my stuff organized in my new house. Well I suppose this was my fourth move in three years - so I should be getting good at it. Actually I have now so little stuff of my own as I keep pairing it all down to the essentials.

Student assessments this week which was a bit of a marathon and throng of uptight students. While I assessed, I set my fine art students a drawing project; make 40 drawings in a week, 20 from life and 20 developments from them. Some their faces were classic when they read this brief. I think I am a dying breed of people who think that artists and designers need to be practicing drawing all the time. I know that I am scared to start making work as I have not drawn for a month or two. And, you know, we get rusty and have to relearn it all again.

On Wednesday night I had to go to a meeting at the very cold Magdalen Road Studios. I was hoping to meet a range of the artists who are there with me, but only myself and four others braved the freezing cold. So, thank you Diana for bringing the bottle of wine.

Well after a week of getting to know my local grocery stores, pubs, take-aways and cafes, I finally made it down to the studio on Saturday. I decided to follow the brief I gave my own students and make 40 drawings. Well, almost. I made 16 tiny meaningless watercolours just to get into the swing of things. My concentration was low and did not last for more than a couple of hours.

So I went into town to visit Modern Art Oxford to finally see the JANNIS KOUNELLIS exhibition. This is a great show designed for a wonderful space by a significant artist. But, still only spent about ten minutes looking at it.

On Saturday night I was delighted to go and see one of my students, Jack, play drums in his band The Edmund Fitzgerald at the Zodiac on the Cowley Road. They are a three piece combo of drums and two guitar players (no bassist) and they do extraordinarily complex, jerky and relentless rhythm instrumental anthem (with the occasional John Lydon style wailing vocal). They were terrific and wonderful musicians clealry dedicated to their cause. They were by far the most interesting of the line up of the four bands that night (YOUTH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK STRATEGIES + THE EDMUND FITZGERALD + THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS + NARCISSISM). The others were interesting, but how much of that Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Dashboard Confessional think can we take? Anyway well done Jack, and thanks to new housemate Claire for coming along with me.

Oh and you can read a review of The Edmund Fitzgerald here.

Well today (Sunday 6th MArch) felt much more like my life. I had joined the Oxford University Rosenblatt Swimming Pool and went for a more desired swim, my first in 2005. It was bliss and I felt great after. Spent about 3 hours in the studio doing a dreadful drawing, but loved every minute of it…

Oh and before I fordot, my studio is also going to be open to the public during Oxford Art Weeks at the end of May. Watch this space.

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February 28, 2005

Here at Last!!

No more 5.45am starts for me! I am now here in Oxford at last. In a new home and new studio!. Feels great.

Last week was particularly tough as instead of going home to London and getting an early night, I had couple a late nights due to having a social life, which I paid for at work. SO a big sorry to my students who were perhaps on the wrong end of a grumpy Robbie last week.

On Thursday night last week, I met up with Billy and a couple of his friends in Islington for a bite to eat before going to see the rockumentary Ramones: End of the Century at the Screen on the Green. It was a great night and the movies was fabulous reminder of that whole era and what an influencial band they were, especially to the whole UK punk scene.

So, was in bad shape on Friday, which was made worse due to the fact that after teaching all day, I had to go into Oxford pick up the van.

So here is my weekend with the van itinerary for all those of you who just love to hear about my travelling details;

friday 25th 5.00pm: drove van from Oxford to Kentish Town. Met David there to pick up a bath (dont ask) and my stuff there.
8.00pm: Drove to Hastings with David. Dropped off bath.
saturday 26th am: packed van with more of my stuff and emptied my room. pm(after fish and chips by the fishing boats in hastings): drove to Emsworth to Suzie’s house. Swapped bed for my plan chest (dont ask again - ok, it was her bed that I had and my plan chest which she had).
Sunday 27th pm: drove to Oxford. 3.00pm: parked at new studio and unloaded my art and equipment. 4.30pm: parked outside my new house and was welcomed by new house mates Claire and Julie with a cup of tea. They were kind enough to help me unload the van. Slept well last night and this morning, had to get the van back in Oxford before 8.30am. So here I am in internet cafe writing the blog as at least a record of the events. Cant wait for the blogs to return to being about my art…

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February 21, 2005

last week of commuting

Sorry if my blog is a bit repetitive just now. I am afraid that my life has been a bit that way these last weeks. But, now I have only one week left before I move to into a house and a new studio in Oxford. Cant wait.

I spent this weekend back in Hastings, packing up my life once again, trying desperately to downsize my possessions. However, as I had done this last January (2004), there was little further I could get rid off without feeling I was throwing away too many memories. So my life is once again in boxes. I am sure this will all come out in a series of new drawings or paintings at some point. I cant wait to get back and start making art in Oxford. I am sure it will instill another change of emphasis in the work. There is no sea or steep hills in Oxford and it is certainly peopled with a whole different character of people than Hastings. Maybe I will return to interiors or have no people in my work! It is quite exciting not knowing really.

Last week was a fairly exhausting as we were interviewing prospective students for next year. We saw over 150 last week who all had to bring a portfolio of artwork. But, I enjoyed it really as I broke up the dynamic of my weeks so far. I am doing some more tomorrow (Tuesday).

Well hopefully my next blog will be when I have unpacked my mac in my new home and can post pictures of my new studio. Lots of van driving to do before then and I am sure you cant wait to hear about my complex travel itinerary..

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February 13, 2005

Two weeks more until I can unpack my life

Another two weeks to go of this sub-exisitence of getting a coach everyday from London to Oxford. I would be lying if I said it was not getting me down. Did not go back to Hastings this weekend as I need break from all this travelling. Instead, just wandered aimlessly about London, never quite actually going to see anything. I never went into the Saatchi or the Tate Modern today, despite getting to the front doors… I think I find it hard too look at art when I have not made any in recent weeks. Well this will all soon be sorted when I move to Oxford and into my new studio and house. This week, I went for a pint after work with an artist who is in the same space as me and we had a great chat about football, art and everything and made me feel welcome. I have been finding Oxford a bit impersonal, but then I am only there when I am working and I am usually in a sleep trance trying desperately not to let down my new students. They are a a lively mixed bunch and if only we had some decent space to work in things would be great. There not enough room to swing the proverbial cat.

We are interviewing prospective new students all this week which I know will be tiring. But actually I am looking forward to the change of pace.

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February 6, 2005

Making Progress...

Just here for my weekly check in to update my progress;

I finally managed to secure a room in a house in Oxford, but I wont be able to move in for another 3 weeks. However, it is close to my job and not far from town so I cant wait. I also nearly have a studio too. I am just waiting to hear back from the people who already work there to see whether they are happy with me moving in. It is a modest space but, again not too far away from work and my digs, and it is a start.

I had some good news this week. I had an invitation to work out in Cyprus for the whole of July. Cyprus College of Art have studios in Limassol where people book to come and make art for a month (usually students). They need someone to look after them while they are there. But I get studio space and lodgings, so I am going. I worked in the Lemba studios in 2002 (see Cyprus 2002 in Galleries), which I loved, so it is great to be going back. And then I am teaching a Narrative Painting Course at Edinburgh College of Art Summer School in August. So, if you fancy being taught by me and make some narrative paintings then book yourself on now. email: continuing.studies@eca.ac.uk or tel. 0044 (0)131 221 6109.

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January 30, 2005

house hunting in oxford

Well I have yet another very tiring week commuting from London to Oxford, now with the added pressure of looking for a place to live after work. And this without a car or much familiarity with the layout of Oxford. Have pity on me. Saw a couple this week and one might be good, but a bit expensive. The good news is that there is an art studio come up for rent and i am going tomorrow (my day off) to have a look. Maybe I will get a studio before I have anywhere to live.

Came down with the inevitable man cold at the end of last week which meant I had to cancel seeing the Gang of Four with Billy on Friday night. Read his blog to hear all about it.

Had a nice weekend in Milton Keynes visiting a friend. My first time there and it really is a new town and the MK Dons (formerly Wimbledon Football Club) really do play at the Hockey Stadium. And the town is surprisingly aesthetic in layout and design. Very Pan-europeoan. Still struggling with my cold, so will not go on and on. Getting strong urges to draw, but I need to concentrate my efforts on getting settled. Should get back to Hastings next weekend, where I must update the website a bit, and put up all the last works of 2004 which have only appeared on the blog pages.

If any of my new students are reading this, make sure you get the chance to read up about and have a look at the new show at the Saatchi Gallery The Truimph of Painting. An interesting review in todays Observer

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January 23, 2005

Surviving the Coach to Oxford

6th Jan, Staff Card	20th Jan, Swipe Card

I think the two images of me on my new Brookes staff card and swipe card taken two weeks apart demonstrate, how the toll of getting up at 6am to catch a coach from Victoria to Oxford each day, and then returning to Kentish Town about 8pm is effecting me. It was an exhaustung week. Not anything to do with the teaching, but simply the travel. I must get sorted out with a place in Oxford soon. Let me know if anyone hears of anything.

I have not really got any significent impression of life in Oxford, but talking to my students has put my mind at rest that there is life beyond Headington Campus. The students are great so far, but the space they have to work in is extremely cramped and will effect the type of work they are able to do. But that is a normal cry from an art lecturer.

I have obviously made no work at all since Christmas. But as soon as I can get a studio in Oxford, I dont see it will be very long before I am off at ‘it’ again. I will need to deveote a bit of time to finding out where everything is in the next week or so, and start to make contacts.

toodle oo for now.

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January 6, 2005

First days at Oxford Brookes University

Just a quickie to say that this is my second day at Oxford Brookes University. I am commuting from London at the moment using the Oxford Tube coach service from Victoria(for those of you who love to read about my travel arrangements).

There are no students around yet and I have been just getting my head around the course and preparing for next weeks trip to Berlin. It all seems very familiar so far, but i think i will be happier once i get to know the students and have a place and a studio in Oxford… (anyone out there from Oxford??)

Hopefully will find an internet point in Berlin next week to make a fewe blog on the move so to speak.

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January 3, 2005

Last Day Living in Hastings

Well today is my last day living in Hastings before I start my new job in Oxford on Wednesday. Although I will be coming back for weekends until I can find a place to stay in Oxford. SO, today I packed up my studio with too many works unfinished, alas. I am afraid that my Christmas burst of art activity did not emerge as I did what most of us do at this time of year; eat, drink, sleep and be merry.

The challenge for me now is to get the best of my 2004 work exhibited in group shows up and down the Uk, while I continue to make new work and lecture in Oxford. A challenge, but one I now think I am ready for.

My first duties as a lecturer is to take the foundation students to Berlin from next saturday for a week. So, this is a great opportunity to get to know the students and staff, while looking at art and culture. I am really looking forward to it.

So no new work to be posted on this site. I was hoping to put up a Best of 2004 page, but time has just run out really. I want to thank all those Hastings who made my time here fantastic. If it does not work out for me in Oxford, then I would gladly come back to Hastings as it is in many ways the perfect place to be an artist with little money.

A happy new year to all my blog readers (I know who you are!!) and I think it will be interesting to see how the site and the blog develop over 2005 with less time to devote to it.

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December 11, 2004

calm after the storm

Just a quickie to say that after all the excitement of last week, I have just be down the studio, trying to complete my garden painting and I think it now only has a couple of days to go - but you never know with painting - everything can still go wrong. here it is as of today:

View image

I have also started a few small oils (or palette cleaners as I sometimes call them) as it is too hard to concentrate on the big painting all day. None of them are finished, but here is a photo of them so far:

View image

Ialso got some nice news from my brother Chris in Edinburgh, who told me that I had sold a couple of the pictures I sent up to the Scottish Gallery, Xmas show. Which is alway great!

Anyway - off to the pub tonight for a birthday drink with my Hastings chums and tomorrow I am off to Chichester to see Suzie and Erin and then on to Oxford on Tuesday to sort out what I am doing in my new Job. Phew - it is all go, and Christmas still to come….

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December 6, 2004

40th Birthday celebrations

Well I told there would be a break between blogs as I went into my 40th Birthday period which is still ongoing. I am 40 today, but I began celebrating this over a week ago as I began my travels north and then south. I will try to give a flavour of my week - but I am sure I will fall short of conveying what really happened.

First of all, I want to thank all my friends who have made this week such a special one and to say to them (as I know they are avid Roblog fans) it was great to see you all.

Now if you want a blow by blow account, read on…..

Well I knew that having a 40th birthday party was not going to happen as all my friends and family live all over the shop and some of whom i had too many bridges to build due to my poor abilities to keep in touch. So, I decided to go up to Aberdeen for about 5 days. to catch up with my dad, my old art school lecturing pals and even older freinds from my teenage years. Thise of you who are regulars on my blog will be used to me explaining the minutia of my travel arrangements, and so I will endeavor to maintain this tradition here.

On Friday 26th Nov, I got my early train (05.45) to teach at Rochester as normal and from Rochester I went to London in the evening to stay at David’s (Brother in Law) pad in Kentish Town. Had a few beers on my own as this was the start of my birthday holiday. Fell asleep on a blow up bed watching Johnathon Ross on TV.

On Saturday 27th Nov, I was invited round to Billy and Ohna’s Thanksgiving meal at their house in Finsbury Park. We had a great spread with Turkey etc, and I spent a wonderful night eating and drinking with Billy, Ohna, Dug, Nicki, Jed, Ruth, Apoa, Kiloh and Crystal. Great company!! Slept on the sofa in drunken heap!

Only to have to wake up by 05.00am on Sunday 28th to get a taxi to Luton Airport to catch the Eastjet flight to Aberdeen. (which I did) After an uneventful flight (apart from a clear view over Aberdeen as we approached the airport), I got a taxi straight to Joe Fan and Fiona Dick’s house. I arrived at 9.00am on Sunday morning, so I arrived and went out for an early morning walk through the town on my own to get myself reaccqainted with the place. It was weird as it is so familiar to me, but also now a bit alien. All the xmas shoppers seemed to be very closed emotionally as I wandered about….

I met up with Joe, Fiona and their delightful 2 year old daughter Maisy at the Yangtze River Chinese Restaurant for a fantastic Dim Sum.

Afterwards, it was off the the WASPS artists studios which had moved from where I remember it. I used to have a WASPS studio in the old Guild Base building in Aberdeen but it is now just a pile of rubble waiting for yet another shopping centre to be built. Anyway, Joe and I went down to visit the new place, and sure enough there was Michael and Blair watching Celtic play Dundee on the telly, with a fridge full of beer and a dart board. Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Aberdeen, and a hark back to my old studio where I had a telly, internet and a bed. Michael Agnew is a printmaking lecturer at Gray’s and a wonderful artist. It was great to see him along with Davie, Gordon, Nicki and a whole bunch of others who popped into the studios throughout the afternoon as Celtic drew with Dundee and then Rangers beat the Hearts 3 -2. (Apparently all because of a protestant conspiracy by the SFA).

The studios are on four floors and Joe took me up to see his work, which was wonderful as ever. Finally, went back to Joe and Fiona’s to eat and drink yet more before retiring to the sofabed.

I met Allan Watson (head of Sculpture at Grays School of Art) early on Monday 29th in the ASDA car park at Garthdee. Only because he was driving a groups of students out to the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden. The students were stocking up on food and alcohol for a cold week making sculpture in the highlands. I was taking advantage of the trip in order to visit my father, Fred Bushe, who is the former director of the workshop, now retired, but still living along the road. I had not seen my Dad for over a year. He has become quite frail and housebound in recent years , but this is not the place to discuss this.

I had to get a bus from Huntly back to Aberdeen later in the day and I got back just in time to got the the Foyer Restaurant Gallery, where a former Grays student, Nicola Brookes, was having an opening of her work. So, yet more drink and nibbles and more old friends to catch up with. It was great to see Keith Grant, Simon Ward, Andy Cranston, (who all work at Grays) and Barry McGlashan and his wife Wendy. Ended up in a couple of pubs with Joe, Simon, Wendy and Barry and got back to Joe’s at 1.30am where we proceeded to drink more and talk about painting. This was the shape of the week as you will now be learning.

Hungover, on Tuesday 30th Nov, I trotted up Barry and Wendy’s house, to have a bowl of soup, try to fix their computer, and have a look at Barry’s studio and some of the fabulous painting he is doing for the John Martin Gallery for next April. They are all based on his trips to America and he has caught to mood of (I think) Maine beautifully.
I just missed the number 11 bus to take me back into the toon centre, so I walked through a biting cold wind, to visit the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Peacock Visual Arts. It was nice to see some old favourites in the Gallery, but the BP Portrait Award (which I had seen in London) had not yet opened yet.

In the afternoon, I trotted all the way down the the beach, and more specifically to the Washington Cafe to meet my great friend Ashley. THis is where we often met when I lived in Aberdeen (or the next door Inversnecky cafe) and it was good to catch up over severla mugs of tea. Went back to Ashley’s flat (where once I dwelt for a further catching session and I eventually walked back to Joe’s who had cooked a yet another wonderful meal (with a few beers).

On wednesday (1st Dec) I walked once again down to the beach, but this time to the village of Footdee (fittae) to visit another wonderful artist and former collegue, Joyce Cairns and her husband Robert. Joyce retired earlier this year after having worked at Grays since the 70s. She will be sorely missed at the college. Some fantastic soup and rolls and a bottle of red wine later I staggered away and got the bus back to the WASPS studios, where I was to meet Joe and all the gang for a email out at the Foyer restaurant to celebrate mine and Simon Ward’s 40th birthday, (which was a pleasant coincidence.) A great time was had by all and thank you to Michael, Claire, Joe, Fiona, Joyce, Robert, Simon, Barry, Craig, Allan and Andy ( I think that was it) for a wonderful night, which ended at one of Aberdeen’s oldest remaining pubs - ‘The Grill’.

Thursday the 2nd, started in a peaceful state of a hangover right up until I re-checked my travel arrangements back to London. I had thought that I was due to fly back at .30 that evening, but to my horror, I discovered that was meant to fly at 7.30 that morning. AAARGGG! I was buggered. After some frantic phoning for trains and other flights, I had to book a flight back to London which cost over £150. The original price for my return flight was only £60. Thank you Joe for helping me out there.

So. after that panic, which I ams till recovering from, as it it was just down to my own stupidity, it back to my original plan of visiting Gray’s School of Art for lunch. Andy gave me a tour of the studios and I met up with Keith, Michael, Andy and Craig. I was a real nostalgia trip me having taught there for over 7 years ( I left in 1999). Ashley picked me up from the art school and took me down to the beach once again (the Washington for coffee) and after a quick trip into John Lewis, Ashley drove me out the the airport to catch my new flight. Of course the flight was delayed due fog over the whole of britain and I did not get back to Kentish town until 12.30am. David was staying there that night and he had put out the blow up bed for me.

Friday 3rd: Not much sleep as I had to get up to catch a train back to work at Rochester. This was a had day as I was tired, and irritable all day. Sorry colleagues!!. Got back to Kentish Town again and drank four beers and sunk into the blow up bed once again and stayed there until 1 the next day.

Sat 4th: Somehow I made my way to meet Billy in a pub after he had been to an Arsenal game (Gunners 3 - Birmingham 0), where after hooking up with Ohna went for a Turkish meal and then on the the main event of the evening - a Punk Rock Karaoke with a live band at the Garage in Highbury Corner. This was fantastic with a great mix of old and young and the band were incredible. Highly recommended. I sang Jilted John by Jilton John and went down a storm!!!. HONEST. I was peeled into a taxi in the wee hours and crashed at Billy’s, who took me for a hangover breakfast on Archway roundabout.

Sunday 5th: Last day of being 39. Hungover, tired and bloated on a train back to Hastings, to which would turn into a bus replacement service halfway down. So, it was nice to have met my freind Ditte who was also travelling down. I was ready for my bed!!! and not ready for a birthday.

Monday 6th December! My 40th Birthday!! Claire, David, Harper and Mae were all waiting for me to get up to wish me a happy birthday and to give me some presents ( the highlight of which a DAB radio which is great). Claire and David took me to a fantastic restaurant in Battle called Pilgrims at lunch time and then I took myself off to the pictures to see The Incredibles in the afternoon. Bliss - a lovely birthday. Thanks too to all those who sent me emails and phone calls - phew and I still have a night out with my Hastings chums next Saturday.

Well - this will probably be the longest single blog I will ever do! But I wanted some record of a great week even though it is mainly about my eating a drinking habits. Well back to the painting tomorrow!!! I wonder if I can do it anymore…..

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November 3, 2004

Off to Oxford

Well I had a nice day yesterday at Oxford Brookes University for my interview. There were 4 other candidates and we each had to do a 15 minute presentation in front of staff and students and then later a more formal interview. I had a few hours to kill between presentation and interview so I just sat a chatted with the other candidates and drank coffee. My presentation went well and I thought I interviewed as well as I could. I felt quite optomistic. But you are never sure.

I got a phone call as I got into London later on in the day offering me the job, and this time I was gald to accept. I think working in Oxford will be cool and the course seems fine and within my abilities. So after 10 months in Hastings I will be on the move again. I will miss Hastings as it has been a fantastic relaunch pad for my life and art. I will certainly not forget it. I don’t start the job until January, so I must get as much paiting done as I possibly can before I start. The Oxford Job is not full time so hopefully I will be able to find a balance.

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October 26, 2004

tummy bug

Not much to report except that I have been down with a nasty tummy bug over the past few days which has laid me very low and hence have done not much work. I actually could