I’m now back from my holidays in Malta and Mallorca, very inspired by the light and the colours. Through doing little watercolour studies it is apparent how much yellow I need to use to capture the bright summer sunshine! I also got very interested in the variety and the colours of the doors in Malta, each has their own character and together they make a quirky collage.

Just before I left for my holidays, I completed and sold my painting of the apple blossoms. I really love this painting, perhaps something to do with the movement and light of the petals! I am very inspired to pick up my oil paints again to experiment with another medium.

Last Saturday was a big day for me, as I was part of Gloucester’s ‘Art in the City’ painting competition. We had the whole day to paint plein air our chosen scene from the town of Gloucester and hand it in by 6pm for judging. Sadly I didn’t get through to the shortlist, but it was such a sunny day, I had lots of positive feedback and interest in my paintings, and I had a really good practise at painting outdoors. I chose to paint the little alleyway outside the Tailor of Gloucester’s house, which Beatrix Potter famously painted. A lot of contestants chose the Gloucester docks, Cathedral and street scenes, however, I chose this bright, sunny alleyway as it took my back to my childhood enjoyment and fascination of the historic street.

So here is my finished painting, I used some vibrant colours and particularly liked the shadows cast across the street in the morning light. The exhibition of all the paintings done for ‘Art in the City’ (including mine) are now on show upstairs in Eastgate shopping centre, in Gloucester. So do have a look at all the other entries to the show, there was such a variety painted during the day, and they are all for sale for the next week or so.

Look out for me in the Forest of Dean this week as I will be teaching drawing classes at Druid camp! I shall be giving my first out of two classes this thursday on depicting the character and essence of natural forms. I have collected feathers, pinecones, sticks and shells to draw in the classes, then in the second half of the session it will be based on experimental mark making, using the natural forms, feather and leaves to draw with. At the end I shall be giving a folding sketchbook demonstration to hopefully inspire everyone to keep drawing outside of the session. Really looking forward to it! On the last day of the festival there will be a market on Saturday afternoon, so I will of course take the opportunity to sell some of my paintings. Further information can be found at http://www.druidcamp.org.uk