…and so it begins. The time has come to test out the two studio assistant’s patience and lets face it – my own with them. Making sure you have everything in your dog walking coat is essential and as each season changes so do the contents. Now we have to ensure we have a few extras for drawing. It’s hard to know what to bring as with holidays – I want to bring everything – all the colours! I have dug out the ruck sack, a range of paints – all the colours!, the pens the papers, the a4 pads, the a3 pads – well alot of stuff. Hmm. Perhaps a little ambitious. How many holidays have I been on and not used half the stuff I came with, but you know, I like to have a choice. Overwhelmed by my own ambition, I have to have a word with myself. Now think about it. I am embarking on a new project with the aim being daily painting out in the field – with the dogs. This is a training exercise. We need to treat it as such. Put the paints down. Pick the pen up and take one small sketchbook. Okay, okay. Let’s go!

I was given a really lovely little sketchbook by Taylor’s Mum for Christmas. It fits lovely and snugly in the pocket of my dog walking coat. So just a pen and the usual doggy accessories in the other pocket and just enough room to keep my hands warm when I need to as wearing gloves doesn’t really work for me when I am drawing. So cold today, but as soon as we got to the fields I stopped and did this little sketch. Just a few seconds. We kept stopping and starting only for a short while – quickly recording little views that I am drawn to. Everyone behaved well and didn’t disappear (we lost Jasper for over 2 hours on 7th January), so all good and a successful start.

To say I have felt a little lost since closing my studio (adjacent to Maldon High Street) last year to be at home whilst we are renovating the house would be quite an understatement. I have had my own studio space since 2006 so it has been strange not to have even a little place to work in. Yes I have had the garden and some really lovely weather over the Summer, which was very much like the outside space in Tenterfield Road, but once the weather changed and Winter set in, well I’ve had nowhere to go. Then in October 2019 I had my first visit to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea – as a visitor which gave me mixed feelings. Although it was lovely to be able to see so many very friendly and familiar art fair family faces – I was a little sad not to be taking part having decided not to plan any events until our house has finished being renovated. November and December came and went – what would 2020 bring?

Over the Christmas break we watched Willem DaFoe as Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate – it’s an amazing performance and beautifully shot film of Vincent’s time in South of France in the last year of his life. His passion for painting outside and the beauty of nature really resonated with me. Of course I know of Van Gogh and his work, but to see the way he was depicted so happy out in the natural world and it being a place where he felt connected spoke to me – why not be more Van Gogh I mused? I was already used to working outside for the last two summers and am quite hardy after many winters spent working in unheated studio and gallery spaces, why not take that further? I can take my inspiration directly from my everyday experience? I am already out in all weathers with @GraysonJValentino and #JasperSpaniel walking through some beautiful countryside here in Maldon. I absolutely love it here. All I need is a sketchbook to start. What could possibly go wrong?