A Working Holiday in Scotland.

A small selection of photos and tiny colour studies in watercolour.

I've been on a working holiday in Oban, Scotland to gather inspiration and experiences for new art work. I also wanted to meet (in person at last!) Annie, the lovely owner of The Jetty Gallery where eight of my original paintings are available to buy.

Art process: when I'm in the collecting experiences phase of making a body of new work I make very few sketches, drawings or studies. Instead I soak up the moment like a sponge, absorbing as much sensory information as possible and using my internal felt sense and emotions to deepen the experience. Although I do take a lot of photos they are used later as a way to access my memories of that moment rather than as an image to copy onto paper. It's the soul-feel of these memories that I tap into when I draw and paint.

At the end of each day I review the photos taken, decide which to keep, and crop the ones to zoom in on a detail which was the reason for taking that photo. In the past I've deleted photos because I couldn't remember why I had taken them and subsequently lost a detail of the shape of a particular tree or a small pattern!

Behind the scenes: I went to The Apothecary Gallery in Thornton, West Yorkshire, UK to see Steven Spencer's work. The stand out pieces for me were his graphite and charcoal drawings which immediately caught my attention as soon as I entered the room.

Returning to my website after a break has prompted me to review it. I've started making tweaks to better reflect future plans. The time of year has something to do with it, I'm sure. I find autumn a quieter and slower season, a time for reflection, clearing unwanted “stuff” and making space for ideas to take shape.