Dry Pigments from Montserrat Yesterday I received an email from Sandy Lambert, an artist who was in one of my painting workshops recently. She is going to be painting in Ireland in September and was wondering if I could suggest exercises, an approach or technique to help her express a sense of place in her paintings. Before Sandy's question, I hadn't spent time considering how I approached painting when I am in another environment. It has just happened spontaneously and unconsciously. Mine is a very tactile or kinaesthetic approach. I particularly think of artist residencies in response to her question because the residencies I have attended were each 3 or 4 weeks in duration. That length of time gave me the opportunity to get some sense of the place as well as time to work on a small body of work. I don't ever seem to settle quickly into a place. I find that I need to walk the land and explore for a few days to get over jet lag...