The park was glorious today, the spring colours of trees are so bright which is more than my attempt at drawing which I binned when I had finished. It is rare for me to do that as even bad drawings can serve as a memory. I console myself that even some of the great artists…

Yesterday I went into the Park in the afternoon and sat at a picnic table to draw this tree again. It has been cut many times by the look of it and this makes for a very complex branch system. I rather like this antiqued effect of my drawing, a change from grey pencil.

This morning’s effort, adding the flowers. In Hotham Park there are several of the large stone balls seen at the bottom of the picture. They mark the edges of one of the paths and I think they lend drama to the landscape.

What do artists do all day? Well this. I’ve worked on this most of the day with a bit of diddling about for meals and short breaks.  Its oil paint and I have gone as far as I can without messing up what I’ve already done. I’ll let it dry before I continue. Watch this…

This morning I have finished this decorative work. The final touch was to paint over the entire surface with a golden yellow glaze which serves to unify the colours and pull them together. I think its worked, but the whole painting is a bit of an experiment and where would we artists be without those.

16 April. A productive morning inspite of feeling chilly in the deceptive spring sunshine. I started by drawing a lovely old Horse Chestnut tree just inside the gates. I have wanted to do this for a while but I’ve always got there too late when it has been in shadow.

I spent a whole day in my studio working on a decorative painting based  the carpet of leaves I posted earlier. Using the real leaves as templates I created stencils to cover the surface of the canvas. The painting is in progress and is acrylic on canvas 90x90cm. Until now my posts have been  retrospective…

April 15. Spent the afternoon trying out my new set of oil pastels in the park. Working with a comparatively new medium is always a challenge but the result of my efforts did rather resemble a dogs dinner. Never mind I will try again and maybe even try to recycle the costly piece of oil…

10 April. Boris is the name of the little train which operates in Hotham park weekends and holidays and now the winter is over and tracks are no longer waterlogged he has come out of hibernation.  Children love him.

I have admired and photographed willows and dogwoods in the winter garden and have paintings  in mind waiting  to be done. When I returned, I found the gardeners giving them their annual hair cut. Here are a few before and after shots.