Autumn is my favourite season, both for the weather and the array of warm colours in the landscape. As an artist the inspiration is endless really, but here I will tell you about my seven favourite things to paint.

The last in the A-Z in this series of blogs, sharing my insights and processes in landscape painting. This one is a bit longer as I didn't really want to split the last group of subjects up. It has been lovely to write these little behind-the-scenes explorations, and I hope you have enjoyed them too.

I thought I'd start an A-Z of landscape painting as a way of talking more about what it means to me and how I approach it. This will by no means be a comprehensive A-Z, but more of a window into my art practice. Landscape and nature makes up about 95% of my studio and on location work. It is a subject with which I have a great affinity, and this three part blog will be my personal take on an A-Z.

Sketching is about capturing the essence of something. They can be done quickly and with relatively little equipment. Completed or partially completed sketches can be taken home and developed further in the studio, used for reference for future works, or just be kept as a sketch journal. Words can be added to, as well as notes on colours or anything else that sparks interest.

Artists use sketchbooks for many reasons. They usually have several on the go, stick all sorts of things they collect in them, as well as sketch, paint and doodle on the pages. This makes them delightfully colourful, messy, and crammed with ideas and collected treasures. Some of mine over the years have had to be reinforced with duct tape to keep the spines together!

The first idea I had for this series was in the night when I was staying in hotel in Norwich. It was during that short period between being awake and drifting off to sleep. This time, known as hypnagogia, is a special time and is well recognised as being a highly creative "twilght zone". It doesn't happen to me often, but when it does it results in a creative solution or creative new idea and it's amazing! On this occassion I leapt out of bed and sketched my idea and wrote it

The way the colours were used was just magical to me. I didn't know all of the arty terms at the time, but what I did know is that I just could imagine myself standing there in the scene, feel the warmth on my face and hear the rustling of the trees in a gentle breeze. I was obsessed with how a painting could do this!