Last week I had the privilege, if that is the word, to visit the studios of the Somerset-based Artist David Lawrence.

Throwing his door wide he leered a greeting at me. 'Astounding!', he cried, a propos of nothing.

As he shambled into the gloomy interior of his house I was able to get more of a measure of the man: a character in early middle age, of middling height and of middling intelligence, bespectacled, gently balding and having the vague smell of onions about him; he dresses in garb two generations out of date - cravat, waistcoat and watchchain beneath a painter's smock of indeterminate colour, smeared with the paint, grease and other detritus of muddling through diverse mediums over many years (a real Jack-of-all-Trades and Master-of..). He eschews the modern world and declares no interest in television, though he does admit to having made a concession to a 'wireless' being in his studio. He travels to the local market town but rarely and is constantly shocked by the price of beer.

He talked and talked: peppering his monologue with words to which I was uncertain he knew the meaning - improbable stories and sometimes downright nonsense - we eventually made it into his studio which revealed the accretion of ages, the flotsam of a diverse career.

There is a little talent on view here, and some humour: his oil pastiches of the Old Masters are scrupulously and convincingly done - with amusing additions.
His version of Franz Hals' 'Laughing Cavalier' is renamed the 'Leering Cavalier'and shows a transformation of the smug and overfed fop of a swordsman into a bleary-black-eyed drunk, bottle of meths in hand.
Manet's 'Dejeuner sur l'Herbe' is likewise changed: in the original two affluent (clothed) Parisian men picnic with a voluptuous nude woman. In his version the roles are reversed - it is the woman who is clothed and the men that are revealed - in all their wrinkled and paunchy nakedness. I laughed a lot. Ha Ha. Very funny.

He is inventive too: his sculpture is diverse and entertaining: reflections on the English Gargoyle and Mythological wildlife and the intriguing 'Palmistry Hand Kit' -comprising an imitation Ivory hand marked with the traditional markings of Chieromancy and a well designed accompanying instructional booklet (from which I deduced I was an eight foot hermaphrodite and died two years ago).

At some points he became quite excitable and animated - indeed I was frightened for my safety at one point when he insisted on demonstrating some Morris Dancing steps - and a 'Bucknell Double Caper' brought several half-finished sculptures to the floor, together with a small area of ceiling. There were curses and abuse. He suggested we start drinking cider. I decided that I had had sufficient for one visit and was relieved to make an exit (there was a strange smell of fish coming from his jacket pocket).

I rang for a taxi. Once safely in my hotel room I rang the police.