High summer in the south of France, 8am on a Friday morning – it’s already very very warm.

First task of the day – dog walk alongside the Canal du Midi at Pigasse.  Pigasse is unusually serene and beautiful – and also one of the cooler places to take 3 hounds in a heatwave.

This particular morning it is now extremely hot so I have to make an extra special effort to get to the last Pilates class before the long holiday ‘break’.

Today I’m also off to meet the artist Libby Page. I had heard of Libby’s work through all sorts of mentions on and off the web, but never actually seen her original paintings, or met the lady herself.

Libby had invited me to her studio and her home. To be honest I was not 100% sure why, but heck – artists are supposed to be mysterious aren’t they?!

The opportunity to talk to Libby was really interesting for me.  In the dim and distant past I had romantic notions of selling my own paintings in France. From time to time I do splash a bit of paint on a canvas, but since moving almost all of my creativity is channeled into my web and marketing work and the paint palette is mostly gathering dust.

Scorching temperatures or not, I was excited to go and see Libby’s studio, to talk about her inspiration, techniques and methods, sit in her garden, meet her cat (“the Professor”), I was even privileged enough to catch a glimpse of her (very) closely guarded secret sketchbook.

The meeting went on a lot longer than we both expected and the conversation flowed – it turns out we have a lot more in common; in business, in friendships and experiences, than I first anticipated.  She even gave me some tubes of paint!

What I also discovered today is that Libby Page will be making an exciting announcement in 2016.

So let’s just say that in the next few months I will be following her work very closely.  Watch this space …