Time and time again I am so thankful that whatever traumas I face in my life the one thing I can do over and over again is to climb through the little vista that takes me from the real world to the warm and cosy world I create in my paintings.

For the past week as we move from autumn to a surprisingly mild early winter I have been cocooned in the warm summer recently past where Northampton Council unloaded tons of sand in the market square and brought the beach to our land locked midlands town complete with deckchairs, helter skelter rides, rock candy and ice cream. I swear I even heard the squawk of sea gulls over head.

So here is the result. Northampton sur la mer! A day at the beach in Northampton town.