She was asleep on the train with a huge box on her lap; every so often her head would gently fall forward and disappear behind the box so all I could see was the top of her head. It was a race against time – would she wake up and catch me drawing or would we get to Reading station before I finished – but the speed and spontaneity made for a better sketch I think. No time to over work it which is my usual failing.

Yesterday I visited the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford to see the Pearlman collection – Cezannes and Modigliani’s out in the open for all to see, at last. A memorable day all round really – a reunion with an old buddy, which was fantastic, and as I finished this little sketch on the train home, the man sitting next to me (and watching over my unknowing shoulder) told me I had a lot of talent! Everybody needs a little boost now and then.

Sitting opposite me at art group, somebody wearing a pink shirt; caran d’ache.

Sketch from our tuesday afternoon art group; caran d’ache.

This is the view as I sit at my desk – two identical Georgian houses, one spruced, one gently crumbling and fading away. The space on the left is blank to write a message as this was a page from a Sketchbook Circle that I am part of; each member draws in a book and sends it onwards to someone in the circle, who then adds to your book and posts it onwards. Acrylics.