Whirlow Park

John and spent the weekend decorating (yawn), so on Monday I treated myself to a day of painting in Whirlow Park.

I packed a sandwich and a flask and was there by 9.30am, when nobody else was about yet. I took a range of materials, so I could experiment and see what took my fancy.

After a while, people started to arrive and I could see them watching me from a distance. A few bolder ones came up and chatted, including a very elderly couple, who since retirement have painted in aid of St Lukes Hospice, selling digital prints of their work. They have collected around £100,000 over 20 years. Impressive.

To stop myself being impatient while waiting for the watercolour to dry, and ruining things, I did a second drawing in another sketchbook, this time in coloured conte sticks: