An inspiring picture for the Orange/Yellow month of Project Spectrum. Beach Scene, 1869, by Degas; in the National Gallery in London.

Despite the Impressionist's love of plein air, I don't think Degas was that keen on fresh air - he seemed to paint a lot more indoor scenes than outdoor - and in this one the key figure pair was posed in his studio.

Which is why it feels like an April rather than a summer painting - cosy curling up inside THINKING about the beach rather than actually being there. DD said 'let's go to the seaside!' yesterday (it's about an hour and a half to North Wales from here) just as it started to rain. Hopefully we'll get there before too long.

There's a lot of tenderness between the two central characters in this painting. I'm hoping to translate this with my Orange/Yellow crafting into doing something specially for DD.