‘Just make some marks’ said Nial Adams at the workshop I was attending, billed as ‘How to Paint with Oils like the Old Masters’.  I’d been very much looking forward to this event.   Having not had any official art training, attending workshops was very important to me.  Whenever I attended one, I went with the strict intention of learning skills, not to reproduce a copy of the demonstration piece.  This day was no different; I wanted to glean as much information as possible from the tutor, so did as I was told and made some marks.  I didn’t copy the tutor’s marks but made my own; this turned out to make the whole session far more complicated than needed.  I hadn’t mean to be deliberately awkward, I just didn’t realise I was meant to make exactly the same marks!  As the tutor built up his painting, so did I, adjusting the information to suit the shapes I was making.  The outcome was obviously something neither the tutor, nor I, had any prior knowledge of, nor previous planning.  As Nial came to the natural end to his own demonstration piece, an interesting landscape, I looked at mine and smiled.  It was different; completely different.  This was my own work created using skills shared, but what was it?  What had I painted?   I’d learned much over the two days I’d spent with this knowledgeable tutor, and I loved what I’d done, but this work wasn’t finished!  Nial was encouraging and, with his support, I bravely added some more strokes until I could see more clearly what I had subconsciously been working towards.  With the new hills in the background, the tumbleweed appeared, gusting powerfully down the hill in the foreground, and I was overwhelmed with the painting I had created.