The Meditation on Philip Guston that I posted on July 12th reminds me of something that happened towards the end of my MA. I studied in Barcelona, Spain, under the auspices of Winchester School of Art’s European MA in Fine Art. WSA owned a building right in the heart of the Barrio Gotico, just a few steps away from the Picasso Museum on Carrer Montcada. They also had a set of studios in the Poble Nou section of the city, which is a few miles north-east of the centre, right next to the beach. My studio was in the Poble Nou building, and while I could produce thousands of words of memories about my time there, I’ll just say that it was quite pleasant to take a break at midday, walk ten minutes to the beach, and sit on the sand listening to Beethoven on my Sony Walkman. The school used to fly in artists to give a talk and conduct studio visits with us. One of these was John Walker, a fine English artist who has lived in the USA for many years. I remember him walking up the stairs to...