Hello everyone, very excited to be part of this new community - thank you Olly and Edo for creating it, and contributing so much! There have been some great discussions already, and some lovely paintings - I can't wait to be a part of it as it grows.

Here's one of my favourite paintings so far, of the Dart Valley from North Tor, looking towards Sharp Tor. I took the reference photo (below) on a family walk, and couldn't wait to try painting it. As always, plenty of things that could be improved on, but I was pretty pleased with it.

(Saunders Waterford 300gsm rough, A4)

Just out of interest, does anyone else find that when they see a photo or scan of their paintings on a computer screen it just doesn't look quite as nice as it does in real life? Perhaps it's too easy to pick out the flaws, or it just loses something of its watercolour 'essence' when it's converted to a digital format 🤔

Living in East Devon, I'm lucky enough to have relatively easy access to some wonderful landscapes - Dartmoor, the Jurassic Coast, and pebblebed heathland. Every time I go for a walk I'm constantly looking around thinking "ooh, I want to paint that!" - unfortunately I don't seem to get much actual painting done! I think it's very easy, when life is busy, to think "I don't have time to paint", but I'm sure I could fit more in somehow. Perhaps by setting myself some simple exercises that can be done in half an hour here and there - like practising colour mixing, brushwork etc. Anyone have any tips? (Other than "Stop watching YouTube videos about painting, and go and paint!"😂)