I started a new drawing on Sunday afternoon but suddenly felt inspired to paint and use the linen canvas that I had bought a few weeks before. The light was fading quickly so I dug out my old oil paints and found the paints and brushes that a friend from my MA gave me before he returned home to China.

I found a photograph that I took last spring on a trip to see my dad in Cornwall, pink blossom and blue sky. I mixed cadmium red with titanium white as a base for the painting before slowly adding in greens and browns. I used a stick of charcoal to scribble into the wet paint and to write on the linen itself. I built up a few layers of paint using thin washes and thick splodges of paint before wiping parts away to get the composition that I wanted. A gentle cascade of colour.

Cy Twombly is an artist that I've admired for a long time, the book Cycles and Seasons highlights his painting process. Swirling colours with scribbles and writing, beautiful painterly marks. Twombly has been a big influence on my perspective as an artist but his influence hasn't been particularly visable as I've been making detailed drawings in pen. With oil paint I've been able to channel artists like Cy Twombly and Tracey Emin as well as artists from the Impressionist movement.

This painting is 30cm x 30cm and is the first in a planned series of floral 'impressions'. It's my first attempt at painting since I gave it up in the second year of my BA in 2009 when I felt uninspired with paint and decided to focus on drawing. Since my MA I've realised that as an artist I don't need to specialise, I can have freedom to use any medium that fits my vision.