I have always been affected by colour, particularly the colours of the countryside. As a child, my grandmother taught me a love of nature and its colours, but my artistic attempts were not nurtured at school, and it was not until much later that I began to paint seriously.

Since the beginning of the new year I have deviated from my usual path of watercolour and mixed media landscapes to something new: using botanical prints to create works celebrating my garden and local hedgerows. I have been collecting leaves, flowers and dried stems to work with and now that Spring is here there will be a lot more to experiment with.

Wherever I am, walking the countryside near home or travelling, my sketching equipment is with me - and a little bag to keep 'treasures' I find on the way. These could be a fallen leaf, a feather or even a photo of patterns created by shadows.

A bonus of even just a short time gathering sketchings and 'treasures' is that you become fully aware of the scene, not just of what you see but the sounds and smells too. Another bonus is the people I meet, some who stay to chat, tell me about the place or guide me to more views. Back at home I use these treasures and my memories to create paintings full of colour harking back to where I have been and what I have seen.

I run regular art classes and occasional workshops in my area of Devon, and I sell my work at exhibitions, art fairs and other venues. There are examples of my work in collections locally and further afield, as far as New York, Uganda, Canada and Australia.