Spring is in the air and I love this time of year.

All the colours of nature come to life in spring.

I absolutely love this time of year, how could I not? For an artist it's wonderful!

The view from my studio is spectacular at this time of year, any time of year in fact, but as I move further down the garden I love seeing the bluebells in my orchard and the primroses on the slopes and new blossom in the trees.  Nature at its best; playing with  the complementary colours of purple and yellow, springing and singing against each other- it's truly inspirational.

Bluebells at the bottom of the garden

Cherry blossom

I’ve enjoyed seeing on the Internet and indeed on the news, the huge number of the fantastic photographs of bluebell woods in and around the area I live in. Three of the most spectacular bluebell woods in the whole of England are in the New Forest just a few miles from my home in Salisbury. Every year it welcomes thousands of visitors see a carpet of purple bluebells in dappled light. Everyone thoroughly enjoying watching the colours of nature come back to life after the cold dark winter months. The joys of the new forest aren't simply bluebells. Deer, ponies and cattle all seem happy enough to pose for the camera, even if they don't stay still quite long enough for my sketches to be accurate. Even this pheasant seem happy this time of year, sitting on the wall outside my studio, admiring his own reflection.

The pheasant who visits my studio

New Forest cattle at Fritham

New Forest pony

The orchard springs to life

Pink clouds from the studio

Springtime in southern England reminds me a lot of when you return from a holiday and see the first glimpses of old Blighty from the air. We suddenly realise why it's called a green and pleasant land! The whole landscape really does become lush and verdant and as an artist I very much enjoy watching it the changing colour and light from the view from my studio. In fact, the intro to my artist’s statement  is ‘inspired by the changing colour and light in nature’. And it is at this time of year that that becomes very apparent. The evenings get longer and lighter and a fantastic pink clouds start appearing in the evening. In addition to the strong greens in the landscape as the trees start growing leaves again, and the ground becomes lush there are incredibly strong patches of yellow popping up on all around Wiltshire as the oil seed flowers bloom into life. It's also a very inspiring time of year for me and my animal collection as I get to visit farms or simply go walking in nearby fields and can see newborn lambs springing around in the field ready for me to draw them!

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Barley Hare. ©louiseluton The latest hare in my collection

A recent article claimed that all we need to do for a long and happy life was to eat purple foods, go for a walk every day, and draw. Learning to draw is great fun and going for a walk is just marvellous at this time of year, you cannot fail but to find something that will catch your eye.
Simply seeing colour spring into life as an artist all I want to do is dive in and paint it. The winter months belong to my charcoal sketches, or working from photographs or archives of sketchbooks. But once the spring is here I get to go out and about! I get to draw in the open air and paint.


So this weekend, go and enjoy the sunshine, the bluebells and have the eye of an artist - notice the changing colour and light in nature.

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The dawn light I wake up to.