Hello! I hope you’ve had a good week.
I’m interested in knowing what colour you’ve seen most and if this will be different from when I last asked back in December. For us here in Yorkshire, there’s been a lot of grey. The bare tree trunks look a bit grim without the sun shining on them. This has meant I’ve had to look for colour while outdoors like a kid on a birthday party treasure hunt. I’ve paid extra closer attention to birds and spotting the robins, as usual, cheered me up no end! On Tuesday I tried making a mental list of every type of bird I could see while on a 25mins walk. When I came back indoors, I immediately wrote these down in today’s visual journals (see the list on the right page).
This week I’ve spent a lot of time developing a new body of work on spring still life. I’ve been keeping fairly quiet about this but now that I’m spending most of my time on this project, I’d like to share a bit more with you. From early April til end of June, I will be exhibiting a body of canvas work in Gleneagles Townhouse, a gorgeous hotel in Edinburgh. My work will be on show in their club members’ co-working space. Along with the exhibition, these pieces will also be for sale on my website (my current website is also getting a complete makeover which is exciting). The theme of the still life collection is Springtime Blooms, with a focus on flowers grown in Scotland. Clementines and lemons will also feature as a metaphor for cultural diversity. This project is bigger than anything I’ve ever done and although I started working on it in November, I’m only now feeling more at ease within the task at hand. Mentally, I’ve had to overcome and push through a lot of self-doubt and sometimes even outright fear. The best thing when challenging myself this way has always been to give my brain a rest by listening to experts in the field (and not give in to worry which could lead to giving up). If you happen to be in the middle of a creative project and needing a bit of encouragement, below are a few helpful voices I’ve listened to this week.
Videos I re-watched this week:
Artist Flora Yukhnovich: Worlds Of Their Own | Louisiana Channel
“Anyone can paint” - Artist Insights Jo Rance | Jackson's Art
Books I’ve re-listened to on Audible:
Kate Bryan - How To Art
Books I’m reading:
A Visit to Brambley Hedge by Jill Barklem (The making of the world within the hedgerow)
The Almanac (a seasonal guide to 2026) by Lia Leendertz
The book of Acts in the NIV Journaling Bible
Spring Cannot Be Cancelled - David Hockney in Normandy by Martin Gayford
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett - specifically the Puffin Clothbound Classics, that pink!!
This Week’s Mundane Magic
very frosty mornings
a successful Galette des Rois
choosing some lovely, cozy books at Waterstones
visiting Elsecar Antiques today with my friend Katie and finding the perfect dish for my clementines which will hopefully appear in my still life collection
sugar doughnuts, chocolate panettone and slices of orange
making actual plans to go to Belle-Ile this summer
spotting birds and rosehips in the hedgerows
re-watching EMMA. (2020) and finding delightful Springtime bloom inspiration for the still life collection
finding my dear Sennelier oil pastels (bought in Paris I should add, you can watch that video here) after having misplaced them. Turns out they were in my watercolour drawer
overcoming my doubts and fears with the help of many wise people who’ve written excellent books on the topic of creativity
My Methodology
While I’m working on a big project, I thought I’d share some of my methodology as I go along. For a long time, in my sketchbook work, I have been layering Neocolor 2 pastel marks on top of a dry watercolour base. I’m using the same principle for larger work, though this is now on canvas and I’m swapping watercolour for acrylics as the base and Neocolor 2 pastels for larger oil pastels.
For this new body of work (I am aiming for 12 pieces), I’m at the point of nearly being finished the 2nd layer of acrylic base. In my mind, the magic really happens when I add the oil pastels and up until then, it’s a mental challenge to trust the process, past the “not very pretty” stage. Sometimes that stage is so ugly it makes me doubt the whole piece. The trick is to keep going.
On Wednesday I texted a friend: “Saw this sky and felt inspired by the layers of plane marks on top of the layers of clouds. Was a bit of a revelation as I see a real parallel with my current methodology in this body of work: my base of acrylic (like the sky and clouds) and then oil sticks go on top (like the marks the planes have left). In other words, I do not need to worry about this stage being unfinished looking because I haven’t started the 2nd stage yet.”
Hopefully I’ll have more to share on this next week. Until then, I have a lot more work to do!
Materials Used in Today’s Spread
A variety of Caran D’Ache Neocolor 2 pastels
Holbein Acrylic Gouache: titanium white
A Kaweco fountain pen 1st, then a Sailor fudo pen for journaling
Join my Visual Journaling Retreat
Portugal, 12-16 May 2026
Thanks to those who’ve already signed up to the Visual Journaling Retreat in Portugal. We have a few spots still available and I’d love for you to join! We will look at composition, layout, colour choices, while sketching landscapes and still life with local produce. Think of alllll the citrus!!! As well as a dedicated art studio for some focused workshops, we will have opportunities to sketch outdoors. Here is the full program, this might be just right for you! There are shared rooms and individual rooms. Feel free to share this link with anyone you think might enjoy a bit of sunshine and creativity come May!
More Cozy Posts
Perfect for a Weekend Watch/Read
I went LIVE here on Substack to share my process as I made a poster for the Portugal Visual Journaling retreat. Thanks to all who joined me and said hello! It was great to get back into the studio mood after the winter break! The replay is free to watch here.
Here are a few others you may enjoy this weekend!
QUICK CLUB NOTES
This is a free post for subscribers but you can also become a Time Foragers’ Club paid subscriber and meet up on Zoom 3 times a month (we draw, create and journal), receive a monthly video from my studio, PLUS chat with our blossoming creative community in our exclusive threads.
Next week we’ll be drawing British birds, come join!
See you then! xx
