There is something very attractive about Fly Agaric mushrooms to me. Perhaps it is their association with fairy-tales and magic that appeals to my inner child.

I suddenly had the urge to paint one a few days ago and so I scoured the internet for images and began sketching my own impression.

I did a single one first so that I could study its form very intensely but already my impatient mind is galloping ahead - imagining misty scenes of the tangled roots of great oaks smothered in swathes of the infamous red and white topped fungi with perhaps a grumpy old toad sitting on one here and there!

I used Arches Hot pressed 90lb paper and painted it dry on dry except for the background which I did wet into wet to add some runs and mystery.

More coming up - watch this space.