We were offered the opportunity of holding a pre-degree exhibition in Dan's pop-up Gallery in Maylords, Hereford. It's an empty shop, one of two that the college used last year for the MA Exhibition and makes a fabulous exhibition space. Dan has taken it on for a year - possibly longer.

We decided to call the exhibition 'Interim' and had under 2 weeks to prepare for it but, amazingly, with some very welcome hanging help from Mark and Dan, it worked! An exciting and very eclectic mix of work, 2D, 3D, video and installation that actually, somewhat to my surprise, hung together really well.

The Private View on Friday 1st Feb was a great success and pretty busy despite very unappealing weather. Everybody contributed food and drink and there was a good buzz.

The weekend also went well with a steady flow of visitors and a lot of good feedback. I was very heartened when talking to people at the Private View and when I was curating to find that visitors were interested in 'Traces', the work I'd chosen to exhibit, and that people really got what I was trying to express. I subsequently had a wonderful surprise when I received 2 emails, one from Georgia and one from Viv to tell me that somebody wanted to buy the painting. This was confirmed in subsequent messages and the buyer very kindly agreed to allow me to hold on to the work until after the Degree Show and Free Range, when we take our show to London. It was exactly the confirmation I needed to feel that I'm on the right path for me anyway. A really welcome injection of positivity as sometimes pursuing painting on a Contemporary Art Course feels like quite a lonely journey...

The whole exhibition was a very positive experience as it was really the first opportunity the group had had to work together. The dynamics were good and it was wonderful to have the energy and some of the original input of the young students. A good learning curve for all and a great trial run for the Degree Show and Free Range.