Merry Christmas

Thank you all for visiting both the fine line and the studio blogs, have a great Christmas and may the new year bring you all the good things you wish for.

Stratford, Victoria Park and Hampstead Heath

"Hampstead Heath! Glory of London! Where Keats walked and Jarmen fucked, where Orwell exercised his weakened lungs and Constable never failed to find something holy."

(Zadie Smith)

"We have just received intelligence that another child, missed last night, was only discovered late in the morning under a furze bush at Shooters Hill side of Hampstead Heath, which is perhaps less frequented than the other parts. It has the same tiny wound in the throat as been noticed in other cases."

(Bram Stoker. Dracula)

The Gower

"I stayed on the worm from dusk to midnight, sitting on that top grass, frightened to go further because of the rats and because of things I am ashamed to be frightened of."

(Dylan Thomas)

"A great sin can enter through a small door"

(Welsh saying)

Cassis Provence

"He who has seen paris but has not seen cassis can say: I have seen nothing."

(Frederic Mistral)

"Naturally you love Provence, but which Provence?"

(Colette)

Lourmarin and Gordes Provence

"To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant and cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them."

(Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

"If your arteries are good, eat more ice cream, if they are bad, drink more red wine. Proceed thusly."

(Sandra Byrd. Gourmet Magazine)

Roussillon Provence

"Colour is where our brain and the universe come together."

(Paul Cezanne)

"When the good lord begins to doubt the world, he remembers that he created Provence."

(Frederic Mistral)

Avignon Provence

"Provence is a country to which I am always returning, next week, next year, any day now, as soon as I can get on a train."

(Elizabeth David)

"The air in Provence is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it very healthful to breath."

(Alexander Dumas)

Chiswick House

"All gardening is landscape painting."

(William Kent)

"There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air."

(Rudolfo Anaya)

Brecon Beacons

"I Like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me."

(Noel Coward)

" I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit."

(Henry David Thoreau)