Another painting from our trip to Jersey last week. This is St Brelade’s church in the corner of the bay. I painted it at 7.30 just as the sun came up, trying to capture the reflection of the sun in the church windows.The churchyard has some interesting graves including of an an 89 year old who died in 1872 and served in the Peninsular wars and at the battle of Waterloo.

We have just spent five days in Jersey staying in a hotel overlooking the beautiful Brelades Bay. I managed a few paintings, mostly by getting up early and painting before breakfast. This is the view from our hotel room.

I have been wanting to try painting with oils for a while, I have some that belonged to my father so they are around 20 years old. I did buy a few extra tubes to replace the ones I couldn’t open about 12 years ago. This is my first attempt and I really enjoyed it, so different to watercolour and acrylics, the paint doesn’t dry out if you leave it. For five minutes so it remains soft and useable, unfortunately that also means if you brush over the painting with your sleeve you ruin a perfectly good jumper! I know the lower half of the runner needs some work, she has a wonky leg!

Out with Bournemouth and Poole Urban Sketchers today sketching on Poole Quay. I chose the colourful Portsmouth Hoy and Poole Arms pubs and enjoyed an hour sat in the sun painting and watching the world go by.

A trip to Durlston Country Park in Dorset today with PEDAS, my art group. I walked along the coast path to Anvil Point lighthouse and sat on the downs above the cliff top to sketch it. The wind was cold and I think I have hypothermia in my knees so I walked back to the castle which was sheltered from the wind for the other sketch.

Today the art group visited Shillingstone House courtesy of Lady Caroline Salt. We had the run of the gardens and an oil painting tutorial from the brilliant Rob Adams. I chose to paint one of the garden cottages in watercolour but it made me want to give oils a try soon.

A couple of pages from yesterday morning in Kimmeridge. I tried dividing one page into smaller boxes so I could try some quick sketches of things happening around me. It seemed to work so I will try that again.

I spent a happy morning with the art group painting around Kimmeridge. The sun shone and the views were magnificent. I someone must have reversed into the Clavell tower because I am sure it didn’t lean before! The tower was built in 1830 and in 2006 had to be moved 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff edge by dismantling it, labelling and numbering all the stones and rebuilding it in a safer location.

Another painting from the New Forest Folk Festival. My friends are used to me drawing and painting all the time so they just ignore me which means I can paint them when they are concentrating on the music.

I spent the morning at Morton gardens with PEDAS. They had sculptures in the garden as part of Dorset Arts Week and the sun shone! It was a great morning and I have seen some lovely paintings done by other members of the group. The large brown structure is made of wicker, I forgot to look at the details so I can’t credit the artist or remember what it was called!