How do my paintings evolve?

Many people ask me why I paint as I do and how do I get the ideas. I usually have some kind of idea about the painting I work on but it is rare that I end with my original thoughts.

This is a good example. I wanted to paint a few trees together and see what happened. I always paint the first coat of the blue sky and green landscape in acrylic which gives a base for the oil paint. I paint thinly so if the canvas is white that tends to show through, the undercoat sorts that out.

When the first layer was thoroughly dry, I worked out where the trees will be and traced them onto the canvas. I painted an layer of red in oil and waited for it to dry before applying copper leaf. - I added the copper very roughly to give it texture but this meant some parts are not covered, I do this on purpose as the tiny flecks of red showing through gives the copper a vibrancy.

In this painting I added hills in the background which is done by painting the area green and then adding the details when this is dry. Next I painted the leaves which takes many days as I needed to paint several layers and to wait for each layer to dry. I had made a drawing of a shepherdess driving her sheep from an old manuscript, and thought I could use this idea. I redrew the image changing the clothing etc and traced it onto my painting before I added colour.

The final part of the painting was the millefleur. I started on the left hand side and work across. Adding the millefleur took 3 -4 days!!

Each of my paintings takes an average of 3 or 4 months but I work on two or three at the same time as I wait for areas to dry. I work on my paintings most days.

The May bank holiday weekend had TWO sketching experiences for me!

On the Saturday I travelled to Ely for their Ely Eel celebrations where I was invited to sketch in the Kings School gardens. I drew the magnificent buildings behind an old brick wall. I also took photos of the wonderful old maple tree which was covered in the first fresh leaves. It meant I could see the shape of the bark which last time was impossible to see because of all the lush green leaves.

On Saturday I went to the Cambridge Urban Sketchers event on Jesus Green where I drew my favourite view of the river where 'Casper' the barge is moored. I especially love the buildings behind the river.

Both places were extremely cold and windy but us sketchers put up with all weathers - until they can't! In Ely I got so cold I went home on the train and my bike. On Jesus Green several of us retreated to the new pub next to the river where we had fresh mint tea. Delicious.