“The Path In The Dunes With Yellow flowers”

The daisy-like flowers were a lovely surprise. It was a hot sunny day – er, when out of a biting cold wind, that is – in June. This cold and warm thing is not unusual at Bamburgh on the North-East coast of the UK.

I'd managed to discover a quiet warm oasis to settle in to with my paints. At first the dunes appear to be all grass, but beside the yellow daisies, there was also Plantain and Thrift among the dune grass.

There are many paths through the dunes between the car parks and the epic Bamburgh beach. I've spent many hours exploring these paths noticing the surprising richness of plant life there, as well as scouting for views to paint. There's a lot of walking involved when making landscape art.

The paint was drying really quickly while I was painting this. So quickly it made things difficult. You can see evidence in the sky on the left. I disturbed a sweep of paint by accident and it dried before I could do anything about it!

Acrylic paint dries quickly under normal conditions, and when used thinly like this, it's even faster. The wind and the warmth of the sun combined meant the paint dried almost instantly.

The space I'd settled into was so sheltered that the heat became unbearable – this was June afterall. Speed was the answer, and you can see it in the brush strokes describing the dune grass. As a plein‑air artist, you're always adapting to the conditions.

The path leading to the beach, and the classic view of Bamburgh Castle, created such a compelling composition for a painting though, I stayed rather than abandon the exercise when I felt like doing so – an ice-cream was a well earned reward.