Back in 2002 I went to Western Canada to meet a great friend of mine, to snowboard as she finished her season and to travel together up the West coast. We stopped a night or two in Tofino, B.C. I wasn’t sure at the time why I didn’t join her on a whale watching boat trip, but I drifted into a lovely bookshop, sat on the floor to browse a shelf and came across this wonderful book, ‘Women Of The Beat Generation’, by Brenda Knight. Actually, it pretty much jumped out at me.

What I saw in 1993 was an exhibition by American painter Robert Ryman. Known as the ‘painter of white paintings’, he is one of the foremost abstract artists of his generation. The influence that this one exhibition had was so profound it still resonates deeply today.

I’ve been making oak gall ink since I discovered it’s possibility in 2010 and last year I started to broaden my palette. These particular works include eucalyptus leaf, avocado skin, ivy berry and oak gall ink. I have chosen these because they rank as the most permanent of natural colours and also because they feature either in my garden, my kitchen or are native wild plants (sustainably picked of course).