One of the things I love about having a fairly large indoor jungle, is the variety of leaves and colours there are and I’ll quite often paint a new plant just to document its start. These are usually in watercolour and serve either as a successful reminder of how small a particular plant started before it took over the house or a reminder of one that is no more! It’s also a good way to practice mixing the colour green, which can be quite tricky, and all the variations you get with the light and shadows.
Of course, having the extra daylight hours not only makes the plants grow, but also gives me more time to paint as I don’t really like to work in artificial light – I find it alters the colour too much – so I’m really looking forward to my day being longer and not having to cram everything into the few daylight hours of winter.
I’m also very excited about our first trip of the year to Porto. I love travelling and as we haven’t been there before, I’m hoping it will provide bucket loads of inspiration. I’m taking a small sketchbook, one pen and one pencil as I’ll only have a small bag with me and I’m not sure if I’ll have the time or opportunity to sit and draw, but I always like to have something with me just in case.
If not, I will be taking many, many photos of anything I spot along the way, then I can have a good look through when I get back and use them as reference or collage material.