Just a week ago I resolved to fit more time for art into my week, hopefully without reducing the time spent on other activities. So how did I get on? Well, as with all things, there's been good and not-so-good. Looking at the week as a whole, I have managed to spend more time on art related activities. I know this because frequently the only art I do is at our local art group one afternoon a week, and that's great because it's dedicated time without any interruptions in a constructive atmosphere. This week I have managed to do something art related almost every day, however brief. This is not just about productivity of course, it's more to do with personal development. Cleaning out my mini-studio, I found a 5 x 4 inch cartridge sketchbook that I've had for many years, and now keep this in my backpack with a couple of pencils routinely. I've managed a couple of pencil drawings, once out in the garden sketching birds and another day indoors from a seed catalogue. I enjoy the Chiltern Seeds catalogue because their summer edition sets out the plants artistically in colour and texture groups rather than according to horticultural groups. The great thing about digging out the old sketchbook was looking through it at my much earlier attempts. They weren't actually as bad as I thought at the time, but the memories evoked - family, pets and friends and quick holiday sketches from as far back as 1990 - were so precious. I think amongst them there's also material for some future paintings. Thanks goodness I annotated my sketches with dates and comments. I've also managed to find slots of time simply by paying attention and noticing when I'm just sitting in front of a screen for no particular reason. The odd half-hour in my studio has resulted in good progress on my latest watercolour, and I can't say I've missed the time previously spent following serials at all. I hope to post some images of what I've done soon. On the negative side, there was one day when I needed to lighten my backpack and expected to be pretty busy, so I took out my sketching kit, only to find myself sitting by the side of the river Wye for a good half-hour. It was lovely but the only way I could record it was on my phone. Lesson learned! I also decided to take my camera on my daily dog walks to photograph around the village, thinking of doing a series of watercolour sketches of the historic buildings. Well on the way, I took my camera out only to discover that my husband had thoughtfully removed the battery to recharge it for me. Next time I'll make sure it's working before I leave home! So, lessons from week one:- in future I'll try and 'seize the moment' and in order to do that I need to be prepared. Happy painting from Rosemary