This is a sketch I made on the spot at York Minster on a glorious Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago. I was amazed I actually managed to get a day over there. May is ridiculously busy with exhibitions and assessing of them at school, so to actually do some art for myself is an achievement. It was one of those perfect days. I’d just had a lovely time at the gallery According To Mcgee meeting the owners, Greg and Ails, and the artist Elaine Thomas who was showing there. My son has commissioned a painting of the Minster as a wedding gift for a friend as they went to York Uni. Hence me ending up drawing it. People were so calm, there was a keyboard player keeping me company. I set myself up on a stone memorial in the shadows looking towards the Minster in full sunlight. I lost track of time as I laid down marks and colour in pencil and oil pastel. I must have been there two hours. I took photos too, but it is the drawing always the drawing that I use when painting and my memory. Drawing fixes the experience in my memory much more completely. The girl in the red trousers, the man in the striped shirt. They all come back to me as I write this to you.