On this relentlessly wet day of a relentlessly wet week of a so far relentlessly wet Winter thought I’d post a few memories of Autumn.

These leaves are part of an allotment project, which is a reason to paint not just the landscape of the particular allotment site where I  have my furlong (and sadly neglected lately) but the natural history it embraces, from frogs and lizards to weeds and foxes. At the moment it’s mainly sketchbook work. I began these leaves by saturating some Chinese bark and cicada wing paper with watercolour, with plenty of pigment; alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, vandyke brown, quinicridone gold, trans pyrrol orange. Once the paper is dry you can add more watercolour if the tone is too pale, until you’re satisfied with it. I then ‘drew’ the outline of the leaf shapes with a fine brush and water and then tore along these wet lines (both papers are great for this technique). Once stuck down I drew the veins with an inktense pencil, well sharpened!

The paler leaves on top were an afterthought, some I had done earlier. Below are a few more, done in much the same way