It's been a while. I've been taking a long hard look at the various strands of my creative life and trying to put some order into the chaos. I've tried everything including having no system at all and just dealing with whatever comes most urgently to my attention. After all, John Lennon once mused that "Life is what happens while you're doing something else." I have come to the conclusion that the Buddhists have it right: "Life is what you choose to pay attention to." To that end, I have sorted out a system that allows to me to keep track of everything from my lecturing, art, framing and consulting businesses via a combination of daily mind maps working on conjunction with Omnifocus. I can capture all the information, process and act upon it without having to keep all of it in my head. I have cleared out the desk clutter, in-tray stockpiles and email backlogs. Sorted all the project files into folders and archived everything that isn't required for front of mind actions. In short, I have created peace of mind amid the whirlwind of immediate actions, mid-term projects and long term fantasies. My whole life is ordered into 3 main folders: Now. Next and Nuts. Each has subsections for the four working and one personal contexts. Fingers crossed. What Now?...Billing. What Next?...new business in Poland. What Nuts? I'm not ready to tell!

Maidenhead Art on the Street

Art on the Street was brilliant. A whole two days of mixing with over 1oo other artists from the surrounding area and as far afield as Amsterdam and Australia. Blazing sunshine on day one and constant rain on day two. All the while, the company of some amazingly talented artists and hundreds of people who took time out of shopping trips and Cup Final TV to talk art and business. Can't wait for the next one. My thanks to the amazing ladies from Boville Wright Art shop for organising such a great event.

Some places you never forget

This is my impression of Ballydwan Cove in Ireland. You reach the single beach via a rock-strewn gap in the cliff face and can find yourself trapped between the crumbling rockface and the pounding waves. The whole bay is a horseshoe amphitheatre for sound and movement. Some days the fog stays trapped on the shingle and you can't see anything but the innermost waves. On other days, the sun flays through the fog to reveal the hitherto latent white horses that ceaselessly race each other across the rough and tumble wave tops. Your eyes and ears have nowhere to rest. You cannot escape the feeling of energy all about you. It is palpable, visceral and always intimidating. Now you understand how the gap in the towering cliffs was made: the sun and the sea are simply irresistible. They work without pause for breath, wielding cosmic and global forces we can't even begin to comprehend. If I painted here all day and night for the rest of my life, it would never be the same from one moment to the next. Such is the power of Ballydwan Cove.

There's no place like home

While heading off into London to exhibit my work to a wider audience makes sense from a financial perspective, putting your art out into the local community helps you feel part of something bigger: raising the creative and cultural profile of Maidenhead, the place I call home. So many of us living in Maidenhead, for obvious reasons, are so focused on London as the place where we work and play that we forget about what is on our own doorstep. The Norden Farm Centre for the Arts is a place where we artists, of all kinds, get to show our work while others get a chance to play and be amazed, amused and entertained. Take a look at the what's on section of their website and you will see the most extraordinary collection of live shows, films, classes, workshops and exhibitions. Who knows, you might even get to see my latest work in there soon. If you live in the Maidenhead area, check out the website http://nordenfarm.org

Boscastle: the forces of nature at work

I went to Boscastle in Cornwall and was astonished at the tidal range in the harbour. The quay wall must be 100 feet and parts of it are submerged at high tide and the seabed is completely uncovered at low tide. No wonder Turner loved to paint ships fighting to get into safe harbour. Even the mouth of the cove is a switchback cut between two towering walls of granite. I visited the harbour at different times of the day to catch the changing atmosphere. I was lucky enough to see an approaching storm sweeping in across the sea. I was thinking it will find it just as hard as the ships to fight its way into the harbour. Boscastle has always been more at risk from the rivers that flood in from behind than the sea. It is as if it is the front line in a struggle between the sea and the land with both wanting to claim the village as its own. It is a place of extraordinary energy. I'll be going back soon to tap into the atmosphere.

It still has the power to generate energy

You can't drive down the embankment in Chelsea without wondering what will become/what should be done with the ruins of Battersea Power Station. My family connection with this landmark building goes back decades. Its abandonment has blighted one of the most dynamic skylines in London. In my panting, I have tried to show how this building has always made people take notice of it, think about it and either love it or hate it. I wanted to capture it's sense of history, its' nowness and it's future all in one go. It has always generated energy in the form of: electricity, debate, ideas, plans, and now... hope. I hope that all of these energies are there in every brushstroke. I hope some of what's on show at http://www.battersea-powerstation.com will keep the energy flowing.

Immortality in Venice

Hot on the brushstrokes of George and countless other artists, I tried to convey the sense of constantly evolving history passing through, in and around L'Accademia in Venice. I can't imagine how many waves have washed against its imperious foundations, how often the sun has baked each ornately crafted inch of block and plasterwork, how many footsteps have echoed around the marbled floors, how many fortunate souls have rested against the smoothed handrail and sighed at the sight of the Grand Canal flowing by and hoped, just for second, that they could be a part of this building of form that goes way beyond function. While I was painting, I was haunted by the idea that whoever built this work of art knew that one day I would arrive and that through painting the building would understand how precious and intertwined life and art must be to make a lasting impression. In the time allowed, I need to put all I have ever been, am and will be into every brushstroke. There are tens of thousands in this painting.

Geroge Devlin in Venice

You have got to go there some time in your life. Venice is simply the most fantastic city on the planet. It is an idea that overloads your senses from the moment you exit the train station and enter a kind of Waterworld that even Disney couldn't have dreamed up. A place where all the normal hectic hustle and bustle of a busy city is carried out on roads made of water, which sweep and wash past the most seductive backdrop of buildings ever assembled by man. This painting by George Devlin captures that happy, seductive collage of architecture, water and atmosphere that makes me ache for another visit every time I think of it. In the meantime, I can look at George's painting and know that someone else was equally moved by the way Venice is a celebration of our ability as human beings to make the impossible possible and that if we pay very careful attention, if we look with the mindful intensity of an true artist, we can capture the essence on canvas, take it home and allow other people to share in the moment. You can see more of George's wonderful work on http://www.georgedevlin.com

Robert E Wells

This is the work of an Artist whose work reminds me of my younger days in London. You can feel the location and, in particular, the weather, in every brushstroke. You can see more of his work here: http://robertewells.com/index.html

Run for your Life

This meter square painting focuses on the fact that runners are moving through and exchanging energy with matter all around them. Every exposed surface of the body is in contact with the atomic mass of the air, the road and the clothes they wear. Particulates that come into the body via the lungs, end up all over the body. Parts of the body are shed from the skin and are left trailing in our wake. There is give and take in every stride. Even our thoughts that tell us to push harder, run even faster or simply to keep going are exchanged with the universe at the quantum level. This painting explores the sensation a runner feels as they break through the wall. An imaginary energy barrier that brings a breakthrough burst of energy that makes a runner feel as though they could keep on going forever.

Maidenhead Art Market

Art on the Street has been put together by five friends
who wanted to generate a fantastic buzz about locally produced art and give artists a unique platform to sell their work commission-free in Maidenhead High Street. Thanks to these five amazing champions of grass roots art, you will find me on stand 70.

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A change of seanery

This once was a seascape I gave a present to my daughter Laura and her husband Neil. I asked for it back and reworked it into the present form. The old painting simply wasn't good enough. This one is. It is better because I have moved on from being a painter to being an artist. An artist is someone who has the technical ability to go with the his or her ideas. An artist is someone who doesn't dabble but works at art 24 hours a day. An artist is someone who doesn't accept good enough as good enough. An artist is someone who doesn't hesitate to call themselves an artist when asked for a job description. This painting is the work of an artist. It is made of thought and paint and canvas and heart and soul and love for my Laura and her Neil.

Upon Waking

Somewhere between sleep and first waking thoughts and ideas come calling. Amorphous and tinged with latent narrative, they hint of other worlds, other lives, other times. By the first spoonful of cereal, the first gurgle of toothpaste, the first overture of birdsong, the first clang of the letter box, they are long gone. Tomorrow, keep your eyes closed, pay attention to the live feed from your subconscious and let the show begin and build and take you to places that only ever exist for the briefest of moments and are gone forever. I did, this morning and this is what I experienced.

I used to run for fun. There was something about being able to keep going when everyone else around you was out off puff. This painting captures that feeling of the seemingly endless energy that was part and parcel of being young and computer games not having been invented.

Don't argue with the Universe

While most paintings begin with a voice inside your head saying, "Do this," this one began with the hand and the brush doing all the talking. Who am I to question their motives, inspiration and actions. They might be less overloaded by the 11 billion bytes of information entering the mind every second. They might just be tuning into something more fundamental than the rights and wrongs constructed by personal experience of shifting cultural values in a world gone bonkers. Maybe they know where the fun is hidden in not knowing where it will all end. Whatever, the post-rationalisation about enigmatic energy flow and the unlimited potentiality that exists in the Universe, it's lovely just to let go now and then.

It's Battersea but not as we know it Jim

Can't seem to stop painting new version of the Power Station that has loomed so large over parts of my life. Dad's demolition company took out the generators (he advised against it, due to the weight acting as a counter-balance to the stacks) but they ripped the guts out of the co-joined stations and, well, it's been buggered every since. It's one of those love it or hate it landmarks, but I am always drwan to it. Dad worked their covered in asbestos (it was used around the generators. The effect was to leave permanent scar damage in the plural lining of his lungs. I look at it and I think of him and all the moments of his life spent in and around the bricks that are still standing tall against the development all around. It is still a power station, but now it powers my imagination.

Don't let them in the next life have all the fun

Meet my latest painting. A couple embracing. They may be lying still but the air is riven with the aftermath of spent energy and bodies tingling with the release of sufficient energy to create a new life or simply put this one into a positive perspective. One day, all days, not just fleeting moments, will be like this.

Up and and away

This is Laura, my wonderful eldest daughter and so much more. Painting her portrait has been a labour of love. The madness of the hair is due to the number of times she has changed the colour. The background is inspired by her frenetic life full of dancing (at the Royal School of Ballet) and acting in plays that always seemed to require a wild a crazy girl and a dress sense that is amazingly creative and all her own. My love for her is there in every brush stroke.