Since the Newbury show came down I have been having a bit of a clear out to make way for a new body of work. Tidying up and throwing out is a vital activity if one wishes to keep a life uncluttered and fresh, yet often is it avoided, as if the letting go is some kind of death. Knowing what to keep and what to discard is a real skill. Perhaps it is easiest when the objects in question are primarily functional: shoes, toothbrushes, and light bulbs all have their own ways of saying it is time to go. The hardest things to bin are those items to which we have at some point in our lives assigned an emotional or symbolic value; just imagine all the lofts around the world that contain boxes of toys, letters, and photographs. Perhaps somewhere a wrist watch has been stuck at 8.45pm since 1968. At least the ability to discern true value increases as one grows older. This is just as well, because the challenge of retention is not only found in the realm of memorabilia - our values and habits are equally deserving of scrutiny. Outmoded behaviours and affiliations cloud the brain and should be dispensed with no less firmly than old electrical wiring.

Rubbish was on my mind too recently when I visited this year's Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. I had already seen a few scathing reviews (Januszczak, Sewell) which had been so damning I felt compelled to go along and make up my own mind, especially since I had submitted work myself. How did I get on? Well, on reflection I am tempted to suggest to the RA they install a bucket of toads near the entrance. This would mean visitors could choose to swallow one before entry to be sure, a la Chamfort, of not meeting with anything more revolting thereafter. For in these galleries of 'something for everyone', there are, amid the good and the mediocre, contributions that are downright awful. Yet nothing shocks. The Summer Exhibition 'feels' the same every year, and I suppose for many people that is part of its appeal. Walking around the three rooms that contain prints, small works, and architectural models there is an almost uncanny sense of déjà vu, yet in some respects I enjoyed these rooms most, for at least they were free of the bombast and swagger that elsewhere dominated. In terms of painting I felt the Anselm Kiefer 'Einschüsse'  was the best major work in the exhibition. It was genuinely moving, and nuanced; a quality I felt was sadly lacking in most of the large canvases by the other RAs. Even Anthony Wishaw and Hughie O'Donaghue, who I respect as serious painters, did not look at their best.  Others big names seemed tired and overworked - a bit like Tom Jones singing Delilah for the thousandth time.

I haven't bothered to establish the ratio, but there was very little work on show from open submission. This was for me the root cause of my malaise: a sense of a self-congratulatory coterie operating in each room, confident that there will be one giant tick in the box from the more jaded cognoscenti. Perhaps all this will be read as sour grapes for not getting selected, yet had my work been accepted I believe I would still have the same misgivings, despite being part of the mix. I think in future years the RA needs to make clear, when encouraging submissions from the public, what proportion of the available space will be afforded to non-academicians.

In closing I should say there were some modest gems - good drawings, honest paintings - to be enjoyed. Wherever one goes, what ever one does, it seems dispensing with rubbish is the path to gold.