Yesterday I visited the white leaved oak with Rachel. It’s reputed to be a thousand years old and tradition is to leave it a gift in its nooks and branches. Some of the most curious gifts I noticed included a string of teabags, two socks and a pair of rimless specs.

I was walking around looking for some sheep who had moved fields, when I came across this tree.

And this tree suggestes that I’ve been watching too much Lord of the Rings.

I loved drawing on the beach in Brittany. Most people were busy enough not to spot me drawing them, when in cafes or the train they usually do spot me and we both feel a bit awkward. My nephew fell asleep for a whole afternoon so I managed to do a few sketches of him.

And this is the Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris which was one of the best days of my life. Monet’s Waterlilies canvases are just indescribable and intended to feel limitless, like you’re inside their world. The Louvre was really quite good and this was about one hundred times better, just to give you an idea of how much I liked this space.

That fish is helping me to create a small body of work. I’ve made some representational paintings, which I want to be slightly uncomfortably close up to get that feel of a fish bowl.

One painting didn’t feel successful as a whole but I was really enjoying the fish scales so I’m taking those forward into a bigger painting. I will try to remember to post when I’ve worked on the big one a bit more.

This fish will hopefully be modelling for a series of paintings. She is a bit rotund and lives in a very small bowl but her fins and tail make some beautiful shapes as she swims – a bit calligraphic.

These are the three cats from the house where we live. The two girls are busy washing while the man of the house is sleeping – that’s why I was able to spend a bit more time on his drawing. I like sketching animals as they are always moving, so I have to look quickly and not get too precious about these images.

I’m not so clever when it comes to photographing and uploading my drawings but since it’s a new year, I thought I really must have a go. These are my first drawings of 2013 – not many because my fingers got too cold and the cows were behaving strangely (running past me down the hill, eating the tree…)