This Worcestershire-based artist’s journey embodies the magic and wonder of the natural world
HOW I MAKE IT WORK
Growing up in a town on the outskirts of the countryside in the West Midlands, I spent many family days out on walks around the beautiful places that surrounded us. The hills, forests, fields and rivers felt magical to me – like imaginary places from fairy tales. When I was very young, my mum would ask me to hunt for things whilst we were out, and I developed an eye for finding very small objects.
I spent a couple of years after art college not really knowing what I wanted to do and experimented with mixed media and collage. It was a creative and intuitive process that was fun and exciting. I worked with so many different mediums and ultimately fell in love with watercolour, coloured pencils, pen and ink.
Flowers have always featured in my drawings and I have always created art with a certain level of realism, but I did not find my way to botanical illustration until around six years ago. I was on holiday and had been sketching some plants in graphite. On that evening, I happened to come across the revered artist Billy Showell on Instagram; her beautiful artwork opened up a whole new world to me. I also found that she was the President of a society that was specifically for botanical artists. The more I delved into it, the more I knew that botanical illustration was for me.
I enrolled on the Society of Botanical Artists’ Distance Learning Diploma. Through my studies, I gained a deeper understanding of botanical science, including plant anatomy and growth patterns. This knowledge helps to inform my art, enabling me to portray plants with scientific
