I bought one of those expensive daylight easel lamps last winter because everyone swears by them, and yes, the colour is consistent, you can work at midnight, fine. But I took a painting outside yesterday afternoon for the first time in months, proper northern light, overcast, the real thing, and I wanted to cry. Everything I'd done under that lamp looked colder and harder than I thought, all these blue-grey shadows I'd been trusting. The warmth was gone.

So now I'm back to working only during daylight hours like some kind of farmer, and the lamp is gathering dust. Maybe they're fine for people who paint digitally or whatever, but for oil, for actually mixing what you see? It's not the same and it cannot be the same. I don't know why I thought it would be.