January in Cambridge has been gorgeous, with big beautiful blue skies, little wind and low sunshine. Perfect for drawing outside, and I have rediscovered how much I love being outside, and in January of all months!

As well as mixing and matching colours on location I also collected a few plants and brought them back to the studio (do you remember the nature table at primary school?) What really suprises me is all the beautiful purples! Decadent damson, Melazane, Deepest plum, Pelt are some of the names from my paint sample cards.

On location I just took about 20 oilbars, big bold Sennelier bars (a gift from @Nicholaswilton and his @art2life programme – thank you!) They are soft and juicy, easy to work with when squatting in the allotments.

Again, I was totally absorbed, just me and the birds. Happy days!