My most recent drawing (Euphorbia Lathyris), a plant picked from my own garden; a plant not planted, a volunteer plant of a type that pops up on and off in the garden.  A plant usually called a weed and ruthlessly pulled up.   But I am looking at plants differently now, with new eyes, not seeing weeds or choice specimens but seeing and noticing shape and colour and if it is not too strange a ‘personality’.

I have been thinking about ‘style’ and looking at my work.  I know that a ‘style’ develops and grows and it will appear (hopefully) of it’s own free will but I can’t help thinking about what will be the best way to nurture and encourage it.  From my previous life as an artist in other fields I know that following my own interests and concerns brought me most satisfaction and ultimately led to a fruitful way of working. So I suppose this is how I will develop my botanical ‘style’; it will come out in the sort of plants that attract my interest, the sort of plants that make me want to engage with them the sort of plants that I choose to draw.

I am already feeling my way towards this, as I am attracted by the slightly strange, the little bit ugly and the oddly shaped, and I suspect the easy to draw……..