Artist Angie Lewin explains her collaboration with writer Christopher Stocks on The Book of Wild Flowers, an illustrated reflection on the UK’s wild plants, their characteristics, place in society and the threats that they face
Popular for her intricate depictions of botanical forms, printmaker and watercolourist Angie Lewin divides her time among her home on the River Spey in the Scottish Highlands, North Uist and North Norfolk, all of which she cherishes for their wealth of wild places. In The Book of Wild Flowers, she and writer Christopher Stocks offer a moving reflection on some of their favourite wildflowers. “The selected plants are those that I love to sketch and include in my watercolours and prints,” she explains.
I remember spending a lot of time in the garden when I was a child. My father was a keen gardener and I’ve been interested in plants since childhood. I had a friend who was keen on art and we’d go off walking with our sketchbooks and spend all day drawing. It was very much part of my everyday life.
Different plants come to the fore at different times of the year. This is really obvious with the machair on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. I tend to visit North Uist any time between late May and late June. Depending on when I go and how the seasons fall, I can be out walking and there will be lots of wild carrot one day, but I could be there at the same time the following year and find it’s all daisies or primroses. Sometimes it’s just the way your mind is working. When I’m out walking, certain plants will catch my eye and I’m receptive to them.
I try to capture the essence of flowers, but I’m not aiming for botanical accuracy. In my earlier images, dandelions were simply discs of yellow as that is how you immediately see the flowers, along with their toothed leaves. Perhaps if I were a traditional botanical artist, I would depict plants in more detail. But I aim to capture the essence of a familiar plant.
Each sketch will suggest which process I use to develop an image.
It’s a very instinctive thing. Until recently I focused on seedheads and skeletal plant forms, and at the same time I was concentrating more on my printmaking. The graphic seedheads seemed to imply linocuts and wood engravings. But as I’ve created more screen prints and watercolours, particularly the watercolours, I’ve begun to include more flowers in bloom. I think it’s because if you look at a petal there are so many layers and colours in it, as well as a sort of translu
