I will do no more to Pierrot until we get back to Ireland.  I am doing some drawings for my new piece 'The Bureaucrat' and continuing my oil painting of Venice.

We have been to Valencia this week.  It is not bad as big cities go, but is really a carbon copy of most cities today.  There are some fine old buildings in the old town, but I cannot really see what justifies its position as a World Heritage Site compared to others I have seen.  The modern buildings at the museum complex are very impressive but somehow artificial, as if they had been built just to be impressive.  They do not seem to have evolved naturally - but then I don't suppose the Colosseum in Rome looked very natural when it was first built.

Also in Valencia there is a very dramatic sculpture in marble or maybe alabaster on a church doorway.  Some of the anatomy is so inaccurate and bizarre that one wonders if it was deliberate for some reason.

I have had a young Spanish artist working here for a couple of days learning the rudiments of woodcarving - I envy him his boundless energy and enthusiasm, just chipping away at a horrible slab of oak.
We have received a lot of e-mails about the proposed trip to Canada and the Northern States, Betty is working on it - please get in touch if you are interested in either attending or hosting a class.
James has now put 'Carving Venus' as a downloadable DVD - this of course makes it cheaper and instant - no more wondering about the vagaries of the post.
Best wishes
Ian