I did a full run yesterday, forty sheets of Fabriano coated by hand, and twenty-two came out of the seawater bath the way I wanted. Two years ago that number would have made me put the brush down for a week. Yesterday I hung them on the line in the wind and went inside to make tea.

The thing nobody tells you about this process is that the sea does not care about your plans. You can measure the ferric ammonium citrate, you can time the exposure with a proper clock, and then the humidity comes in off the Atlantic and decides something else. I used to fight that. Now I leave a few sheets deliberately underweighted and let the water finish the picture.

Twenty-two is not a bad number, is what I am saying. It only looks bad if you are still counting the eighteen.

I have a show in Matosinhos in the spring and I keep telling myself the rest of the sheets will come. They usually do, eventually, at the bottom of the tray, when I have stopped wanting them so much.