On Wednesday, I had a rare day away from the studio. I went up on the train to Oxford to visit the Print Room at the Ashmolean Museum, where the RE Diploma Collection is held.
There I met up with Bren Unwin and Daphne Casdagli, respectively President and Curator of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.
Left: Arriving at the Print Room

When an artist is elected to the Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), a print is selected from their portfolio by the council and delivered to the RE archives, held at the Ashmolean.
We were there to meet Clare Tilbury, Hon RE and art historian, who manages the diploma collection on our behalf, and to hand over the prints from our newly elected Associate Members.
Left: Myself and Daphne Casdagli (right) unpacking the prints.

The Diploma Collection is a substantial historic collection of prints, dating back to the earliest days of the Society and includes work by distinguished past and present members, such as Dame Laura Knight, Graham Sutherland and Norman Ackroyd.
Left: Bren Unwin (left) and Clare Tilbury (right) taking out the relevant storage boxes.

There are over nine hundred prints carefully catalogued and stored here, as the Society has been going since 1881. The collection can be viewed on request to the museum.
And just in case anyone’s wondering what exactly I was doing there, I was shadowing Daphne as I am due to take over from her as Curator for the RE next year.
Left: looking over some of the print collection (and thanks to Bren for the photos – as usual, mine were too disastrous to use……)