Philippa Langton

Philippa Langton always meant to come back to painting once she had the time. Semi-retirement, and then full retirement, finally gave her that. Fifteen years of classes later, she has built on the A level she took decades ago and not much touched since.
Ask her how she'd describe herself now and the answer is a characteristically understated "OK." Her first love is painting urban landscapes, though spontaneity is the thing she'd most like to loosen, and she's working on it by tackling as wide a range of subjects as she can across different mediums.
She counts Richard Diebenkorn, Sandra Blow and David Hockney among the artists she admires, a set that runs from abstraction to the bright clarity of a Hockney landscape.
One early class ended with her hair covered in scarlet paint. The culprit was mortified and could not stop apologising. Philippa could not stop laughing.
Born in 1951, she has been painting for fifteen years.