Leah Wood became a painter by way of opening for David Bowie and sashaying down the catwalks, but Nature now lights up her artistic imagination and underpins her efforts to campaign for the environment

The connection between nature and creativity comes in many forms. Here, artists, writers and musicians talk about the different ways in which they take inspiration from the outdoors - and share the places that fuel their imagination

IF ART IS A REFLECTION OF ITS MAKER’S WORLD, then Magdalena Starzyńska’s is one of order, rhythm and silence, balancing structure with softness. Nature is her constant theme, not as a postcard-perfect

I’ve just returned from three magical days in the Lake District. Craggy mountains, mist over the fells, and the gentle hum of a Herdwick sheep or two. I stayed near Hill Top, once home to Beatrix Pott

AWARD-WINNING ARTIST, RICHARD CLAREMONT, is based in Australia. After graduating from Sydney College of Arts in the late 1980s, he started working as a postman to supplement his income. He set up tiny

Whether it is adding contemporary paintings to a gallery of Old Masters or branching out into territories as diverse as Modernist chairs, Iranian tiles or Churchill memorabilia, the passion for collecting seems to run in some families, as Eleanor Doughty discovers