It became too populated to paint at Priory park. For my 6th painting I came to paint at Redhill Common,which is relatively out of the way. I painted this scene from the monument base, facing West.

Amongst the things that emerged during this painting lesson, was again about mixing colours to match the view. The green of pine trees took a lot of experimentation with phthalo green, as did mixing the colour of the trunks with venetian red.

Whilst I was mixing those colours (using a palate knife), another lesson emerged about applying paint. Above the the general mass of trees are whispy bits of branched greenery. This was achieved by using the green plastic scouring pad normally used for cleaning the palate knife. The edge of the pad lightly touched upon the paint spread out on the palate, prints onto the board as whispy speckledy bits, such as those witnessed before me. I used a goose quill to try to completed the illusion.

During this painting lesson I passed on what I was learning to a few passing families.

Two little girls dragged their Mum over 20 yards (in spite of her trepidation) to look at my painting. After a quick lesson, they went away with 4 paintings. Mum was as amazed as myself at the girls work.

Another young girl (with her Mum) couldn`t beleive that I had only been learning observational painting with a brush (at that point) for 6 weeks. I confidently told the young girl (after seeing her painting) she could do the same too. About 6 months later the mother of that girl approached me in the town. The lady informed me, that after that lesson at Redhill Common, her daughter had been drawing and painting ever since.

Another young mother who stopped to enquire, told me that her son loved looking up at the trees from his chair. She has a framed print of this painting on the wall.