MESSAGE FROM DAVID TRESS
Dear Bobby and Martin - how sad not to be visiting you both in July, and also missing the opportunity to see again the wonderful landscape around you and the Clun valley. When I turn off after Newtown on the journey to Moor Hall Farmhouse I always have a feeling of entering a world slightly apart from the usual, something secret and half forgotten by the busy world outside. I shall miss the group of enthusiastic students, the busy and jolly days - and, of course, the beautifully quiet early mornings before anyone else is up when, after getting myself a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea (and letting the dogs out), I can sit in the studio and run through the plans for the course that day, and prime sheets of paper and draw sketches of the finer points of demonstrations that I have planned for the day.
For myself I'm painting well, but exhibitions have, of course, taken a hit. Well, things are being re-scheduled so there is hope on the horizon for a more normal pattern of life to return again. I've also found I have more free time than normal, and I've been able to catch up on reading and research: I now realise that I've been telling students 'fibs' for years .... I've always said that it was W G Hoskins in 'The Making of the English Landscape' published in 1955 who used the word 'palimpsest' to describe the landscape .... no! It was OGS Crawford in 'Archaeology in the Field' of 1953 ..... but if we don't tell anyone, nobody will know!
All best wishes
David
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