Borgo Pignano, Royal Drawing School

Borgo Pignano is a beautiful place in Tuscany. It's a hotel owned by Sir Michael Moritz, and he supports the Royal Drawing School through the Moritz-Heyman Residency (named after Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, writer Harriet Heyman). This residency invites artists to apply for a fully funded stay in Tuscany at his sprawling farm and hotel in Pignano. They have an artist studio as a separate little place where Royal Drawing School alumni and tutors are invited to come and work independently for two weeks.

I went and spent the time discovering the Tuscan hills and landscapes. I took my art materials in my rucksack and did a lot of drawing, as I always do. What I really loved about this residency was that it felt very much like you were in a bubble—a beautiful little haven. The borgo and the land were really beautifully kept, and they had a little farm with lots of little niche areas to go and explore or discover.

Every lunchtime, you're invited to have a communal meal at the main villa with the members of staff. Although I don't speak very much Italian, they were all very friendly and the food was delicious. In the evenings, I spent a lot of time in the studio working on collecting all the images I had drawn in my sketchbook and little paintings on paper, trying to rearrange them into a sort of map or bird's-eye view of my experience of being on the residency in Tuscany.

I absolutely loved the light that the Italian Tuscan landscape had and the mild weather. Everything was coming alive as it was springtime, and I really enjoyed having that time to myself where I could immerse myself in my practice and build up a portfolio of works.

As well as works on paper and gathering my drawings to build a new landscape of the place, I was also able to think about materials in terms of oil paints on wooden board and practice my confidence with a new way of working. Because in Italy the temperature was obviously a lot warmer, the paintings dried faster, and I really enjoyed trying something different.