I was delighted when Lux Gallery in Birmingham informed me a company would like my 'Tree of Birmingham' painting but with a few changes.

The tree will be used by the solicitor's company as an extra talking point with their logo and premises in among the leaves and background. They loved that the tree held so many iconic landmarks and companies of their wonderful city and the painting will travel with them to events. Landmarks include the Raging Bull - now at Birmingham Station, Cadbury World and UB40 alongside the RLX Solicitors company logo and their premises.

I am so pleased this painting will be seen and discussed by many as they try and name the the images in the tree and the places in the background.

I run art classes at my home. We sit around a rather large table and what we learn is partly led by my students. After we have learned the basic techniques of painting in acrylics and made a few paintings, we try using some different techniques. One of the things I really like doing are collages.

The group are asked to bring in their own references to make a collage. Most of the time they choose landscapes but I do love it when one comes with a picture of a cat or a church! I always find they are much more fun. I usually choose something from medieval art as I just love the humour and absurdity of some of those drawings from the Bestiaries of almost a thousand years ago.

This time I made up some medieval animals, drawing a series of birds crossed with reptiles. I choose two of the drawings, painted lots of paper with different patterns with a palette knife and cut them out.

I shall post my students work on https://www.facebook.com/cambridgeartclass/ when their paintings are complete.