. . . myself.

This should have been done yesterday, but I hesitated. A weblog is only a humble handmaid, a digital lady-in-waiting beside the door of a print publication. Solemnities need not apply. Besides, I am clumsy at self-introduction. Nevertheless, something is in order so that you know this log did not spring up like a mushroom overnight.

I am a painter, as was my father. He descended from a line of British bricklayers who had taken up gentlemanly arts at the Working Men’s College in London prior to World War I. I grew up with their skilled, delicate watercolors of old walls and construction sites. They lined the stairwell and hallways of my grandparents’ house, a two-story brick built by my Liverpudlian grandfather. They enchanted me; and left me with a lifelong reverence for the work of hands and the labor of craft—two subjects of concern on this log.

The log itself began in 2009 as Studio Matters, a follow-on to my Gallery Going column for the print edition of The New York Sun. StudioMatters.com remains online, imbedded in those HTML mysteries under the hood of my website. Also archived in the essay portion of my site are all columns from The Sun , The Weekly Standard , and selected essays from other venues for which I have written: The Nation (yes, that Nation ), Hudson Review , American Arts Quarterly , Art & Antiques ,Newsday , and The New York Times .

A recent review for The Weekly Standard is here . Please do browse. I invite you.