Using the charming little church of St.Nicholas at Pyrford, one of the Woking villages. To give an idea of the sort of effect I want to achieve, the following painting of Wanborough Barn near Farnham, was done from a photograph without snow, just adding snow from imagination. We don’t get enough snow, I am afraid, to get good snow scene shots to work from, so we will just have to adapt what we have

Wanborough Barn near Farnham, with added snow

So that is the task to be tackled next. I need a snow scene for my next exhibition, as usually they sell quite well.

Just a word about St.Nicholas Church. It is an unspoiled but humble village church of the 12th century, retaining many of its original Norman features. Unexceptional apart from having a porch on both sides, which is unusual. It is built from local materials, naturally, using pudding stone and clunch, which is the hard form of the local chalk, used quite a lot for building materials in the area. In some parts of the church, not on the shot I have shown, the walls have been stuccoed over, which was done to give the appearance of stone

That should keep me busy for a little while. I will publish the working sketch just out of interest, just to see which way we go with this

Different people have asked to see photographs of my workspace. I have been taking some pictures and will run a post on that. Not very impressive as we live in a 19th century cottage, and space is at a premium, but it is always surprising how well you can operate from a little corner. Good lighting is essential, and the rather expensive lighting I use, I actually prefer to daylight

I will go into detail on that at a later date