The road from Ballater to Braemar makes a sharp left turn to cross the Dee on the south bank…Just before you get there is a minor track that leads through a plantation of Scots Pine to a gate. Park there and start walking along a track that parallels the road and the river heading back East. Walk along it and shortly you will pass this red shed on your right. It is an extremely functional agricultural storage building and it colour contrasts with Spruce woods behind it. The colour is unusual....

Almost there Almost there   In my sketch pad there is a scribbled title “Thalassa, Thalassa” – not that I had been reading Xenophon but remembering the response of his 10,000, when having struggled up the last ridge they caught a glimpse of the sea. After looking at what I produced I think “Almost there” a better title, so that is what I will write on the back of the canvas. All the colours have been keyed up so the sea is a brighter blue than the Channel probably is, but in early Spring that...

Someone remarked to me that they liked the way I recount the process of making a picture. This one carries the marks of its evolution on the canvas. I started this on News Year's Eve and worked on it intermittently until 11 January, so it was not the realisation of a vision as i usually strive for. but a composition that developed over that time. The core idea was to portray a man and woman getting ready to go out and celebrate the change of year. He is in the trousers of a dinner suit,...