So 38 years ago I left art college, bought a 1972 VW combi and hit the roads of europe with some friends.

We ended up in Italy one autumn and we were blown away by Florence and Sienna. Our eyes were feasting on architecture, the colours, museums and bridges.

We kept painted journals of our entire trip and these have turned out to be some of my most treasured possessions.

Don’t forget, there was no internet or mobile phones back then so we were time rich and money poor, eating out of bins and begging fruit and doing pavement drawings for money but we had our Winsor and Newton watercolour pans and some sketchbooks. We ate a lot of pasta and painted our way through the whole trip. Such joyous times.

I had a look through my journals the other night and here are some of my favourite pages.

Can you see the italian colours? Terracotta, Dark Green and Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna

Enjoy!