We have been having a lot of heatwaves this summer. It’s been unusually hot.

Having built my new studio in the spring the heat has kept me out of it for most of the summer.

I thought I’d go down to the canal with my sketchbook and draw the geese. There have been a lot of goslings this year.

It was so bright and hot. The geese were a little disinterested and they don’t want to sit still and let you draw them. I particularly got their white chests wrong, happily filling them in with chestnut brown. They had gone when I looked up for reference.

The mind and memory can play tricks. That’s something I’m exploring in my drawing at the moment.

I was soon distratced by the towpath goings on. Dogs, visitors arriving for canal barge trips and the smell of coffee drifting over from the canal.

The heat was too much and the light too bright. Time to go home and make some coffee of my ow, sit down and think about what I’d drawn.

Did I go to draw the geese or was I really more interested in the peple and the goings on?

I think It’s all of it. And the stories of everyday life going on, unnoticed until you take out your sketchbook and pay attention.