Six small gouache/opaque-watercolour sketches from a train heading South along the England/Wales border; each about the size of a credit card. The view was changing all the time but the sky was (relatively) consistent minute by minute, so this was where I started each sketch. Once this was dry (two minutes?) I could add the tops of hills with a fairly crisp edge for the horizon line. Then I worked fast to add the mid/foreground details as they sped past: was that a hedge? Ooh more trees! Happy accidents abounded and extra trees, hills and valleys magically emerged from washes merging and paint running. And all while listening to fine music through noise-cancelling headphones, bliss…

Here are two equivalent sets of train landscapes from an earlier attempt to use gouache about five years ago. Flatter and more ‘poster like’?