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I was born and raised in Brighton, my mother's family was from rural
Sussex and my father's from a farm in Poland. I now live on the
Berkshire/Oxfordshire border with several cats, tortoises and hens,
surrounded
by living relics from the past - the Icknield Way, Grim's Ditch,
boundary hawthorns on the Mapledurham Estate...
My
training in science taught me the patience and
attention to detail so necessary in representing plants in watercolour.
I use
mainly the "dry brush" watercolour technique, learned at Kew and with
Annie Farrer. I have had a lifelong interest in ancient texts, dating
from when I first came across the epic original poem Gilgamesh. Since
then my imagination has been particularly captured by early and
medieval Northern European literature - the Icelandic sagas, Beowulf,
the stories of
Merlin and King Arthur. Through these writings I became aware that our
links
with the
plant world range throughout time and human experience, a concept
which is reflected in much of my work. 