After reading some of the posts on here about the joys and benefits of painting outside, I felt inspired to give it a try myself for the first time. I've always found excuses/reasons not to before - it will be too difficult, I haven't got the right equipment, I haven't got time, I'm not good enough yet, I'll feel silly etc etc! But today I decided to just go for it, as the weather is still just about warm enough, and it was 'now or never' (or perhaps 'now or next year'!). So I took myself up to our local common, armed with a folding chair, a old box of Cotman paints, brushes, paper, a bottle of water and a flask of tea 😀

Here's the first (in an Arteza sketchbook):

And another from a slightly different location (on Langton Prestige):

They won't win any prizes, but it was a good experience, and a great exercise in painting fairly quickly and not agonising over getting colours and composition perfect. Thank you everyone for the inspiration, and the kick up the backside that I needed!