As I walk with my dog by the waters edge it seems that nature is more loud than usual. On the far bank a discord of raucous geese are feeding on the young shoots of an autumn sown crop, a moorhen crocks as it searches in vain for a nesting site amongst the wreckage of last years reed beds, and maturing signets loudly slap their strengthening wings on water to shed their grey ugly duckling down. Man made sounds can still be heard but the skies are silent and the traffic subdued as the town prepares for the virus. Svend Bayer’s final exhibition at Goldmark was to have opened this weekend. In line with the gallery’s policy his work has been for sale from the moment it arrived. When I purchased a small bowl a few weeks ago much was already sold; but the private view would have been an event worth marking for this is Bayer’s last exhibition. Bayer has been potting professionally for 51 years, the majority of which have been spent alone making stoneware, fired in large self-built wood kilns. Perhaps, in recognition that his body cannot sustain the demands of this way of work, he has decided to quit. In his words he has “taken something to its logical conclusion”.