Sometimes what grabs our interest or sparks inspiration can come in simple everyday moments. Like picking apples in your grandparent’s garden. Taking the time to notice these things and record them down is something that I value more and more each time I do it.

Sketching supplies in hand, I revisited an art exhibit I visited earlier in the year. The Ruskin Collection rotates out occasionally, and this time the exhibit was themed around colour. Watercolour pigments, natural fabric dyes, colourful paintings, and old sketchbooks filled with studies. One looking particularly like how I use my own...

I brought my compact travel art kit with me on a recent search for fossils along the coast of the North Sea. Creative inspiration can be found everywhere, and sometimes can reach all the way back into childhood memories. Join me as I share with you the treasures of the Yorkshire coast from fossils to the folklore-rich Witch Stones (aka Hag Stones, Odin Stones, Adder Stones) and some of the sketches this trip inspired.

Ever wonder what is actually like trying to draw or paint moving animals from life? Join me as I take you through my sketching trip at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, including all the highs, lows, and surprises that sketching outside brings! There are things you can do in advance to help prepare you for success, and to determine what that success even is for you. However, a lot of the skill building will come from actually putting pen to paper on the day itself, despite all the chaos nature and other people may throw at you.

After a surprise visit to the Ruskin Collection in Sheffield, and taking my sketchbook out to draw there, I ponder the benefits of observational sketching, developing and artists eye, and creating our own collections of oddities and curiosities for still life studies.