Since I last updated about the RHS prep, I have gone as far as I can on the picture I was painting at the time. I won’t be saying which species of Crab apple I am painting as hopefully I will awaken your interest enough to come to the exhibition next year.

The last picture I started was painted using sketches, photographs and detailed paintings I had done during the season. It depicted the apples and leaves fairly late in the season. Some of the leaves fairly past their best – but interesting.

I managed to do some fairly detailed sketches of the flowers last year, but need to wait until we are in the new season to dissect the flowers. Once that is done I will be able to put the picture together fully.

The new picture I have started is also based on sketches, paintings and photos taken previously. However, this one took three days to work out the design, fine tune and get transferred onto the paper to paint. So far I have struggled with a few leaves and a couple of apples, but I don’t feel it is going at all smoothly. Should I have started again?

It’s funny to think that I took three days to compose and put together the outline for a composition, but with my workshops, I have to encourage people to use at least 1/2 day to do the same!