Two Oxford-based artists, Kelvin Jenkins and Rose Pettit, have a very short exhibition in the Bristol gallery, Centrespace, this week. Only until 20 August and recommended for Bristol people.

I love Kelvin's collages, so went to the opening this evening. Given how tough it is for artists to earn a living from their talents, he worked as a graphic designer for many years and after I got my graphic design qualification 20 years ago, he very kindly took me under his wing. As well as him teaching me some real-world skills, it's thanks to Kelvin's guidance that I can skim photos very fast and pick out the one I want to use in a publication. I owe him big time!

We started a conversation this evening about 'abstract' art, a term he dislikes because of how people understand it (from how it's used about writing) to mean a 'summary', or not the complete thing. I said that for me, it is abstracting an emotion or essence from the representational. Interesting stuff and not enough time. We will continue in Oxford.

It was fun to meet some Oxford-based people I haven't seen for a while, and to look at and talk about art with my Bristol-based Firstborn. A huge number of my generation in Oxford have offspring in Bristol and the connections between generations and between these two cities are a delight.