"I took up watercolour painting - one of the most difficult media to control - as a hobby at the age of around 45. I battled through a year of unbelievably bad once-a-week evening classes and managed to retain enough enthusiasm to keep going. I sketched and painted outdoors as often as I could.  In that I learned a lot from an experienced watercolourist, the late Florence Quinlan ("Quin") who gave me invaluable help through general encouragement, positive criticism and, above all, shared painting expeditions around the Thames Valley countryside. Quin's own master was Edward Wesson and she followed directly in that wonderfully fresh tradition of watercolour painting. Nearly all my work in more recent years, however, has been in my studio from my own sketches and photographs–principally because of the vagaries of the English weather!"