I teach art to small groups in my home studio. With just 4 in a group gathered around my table we follow the interests of the group while chatting.

Last week we went right back to basics - colour mixing. Although my groups have been using acrylics for some time, they often ask about how to mix colours so we spent a morning making some charts. None of them realised how time consuming it could be or how much they learned from mixing the colours by finding tones and mixing in white.

They will keep their colour charts here to use.

When I was clearing away, I thought how lovely the palettes looked that they had been mixing on and took a few photos. Little artworks of their own!

In 2024 Tony Eva contacted me about my painting of Milton's Mulberry Tree in the Fellows Garden at Christ's College, Cambridge. I have drawn the tree several times and eventually made a painting of it in my studio.

Tony came to interview me on camera about my painting and some of this interview appears in his film. I remember being incredibly nervous but needless to say I find that tremendously exiting!

The mulberry tree you see in the garden today was grown from the root of an original tree planted in 1609 (the year after English poet John Milton's birth). The tree is large, has a mound at the bottom, and has been propped up by wooden posts since it was uprooted in a storm in 1795.

The tree still provides a good crop of mulberries each summer - the College gardeners pick them and take them to the College kitchens, where they are used to make jam. Mulberries have a sweet flavour but you don't normally find them in shops.

It is rumoured that the jam is only eaten by the fellows at Christ's.

The film is open to everyone, so if you are free, please make your way to the theatre at Christ's

Delighted to have a painting in the wonderful building belonging to the Royal Society of Artists. My son lives in Birmingham so we often visit and I love going to the gallery. It is the tree placed centre stage in the photo. Birmingham has a very young, vibrant art crowd with lots of energy and I am very pleased to have my oil painting amongst such other exciting artworks.

If you are in the Midlands, do pay a visit. The staff are really friendly and welcoming and there are so many things to see in that area of the city, plus the eateries are amazing.