Creating With Nature
The Glimmer Series — grown, witnessed, painted in connection →
Welcome to the Glimmer Series.
Moving from dawn through to evening, the works trace how light shifts: gathering, expanding, warming, softening, as the day unfolds.
The flowers accompany us on a walk with light through the garden on a halcyon day. Arranged to follow the arc of the day, they trace how light gathers, softens and shifts.
Each may resonate differently, for a walk through a garden allows us to be present while quietly connecting with the memories we carry.
Beyond the arc of the day, the vertical pairings hold their own rhythm, a quieter pulse within the whole, layers of life within the ecosystem, mirroring nature's individualism and belonging that co-exist together.
These works began in the garden in spring 2025. Over two years of growing I had been enjoying noticing how each bloom carried light differently, the noticing I felt was in and of itself a creative act.
In winter I sat with the mindful photography and was transported beyond the grey day to the halcyon summer days.
There is something that happens when we spend time with images of nature long after the moment. The senses, the body and the mind all synchronise to re-experience. I could feel the electric buzz of a summer's day, the hum of bees collecting pollen, the sweet scent of honeysuckle in the air. I have always appreciated how art allows memories to stir, personal to each of us, whilst sometimes opening something entirely new and curious. This series lives in the meeting place of art and nature connection, where the wisdom of seasons lived and the joy, awe and wonder we carry within us may be felt again or discovered when a moment is taken in pause.
In that winter moment I wondered what if I could paint this journey of light. So I began to experiment. Each palette taken from the way the photography held the moment. The backgrounds chosen in partnership with the botanical character and the light. A passionflower in dancing first light, a bee nestled in translucent petals of morning light, a snapdragon holding many tones against the blue of a summer's afternoon.
As Sir Walter Scott wrote, nothing is more the child of art than a garden. The planting had been a glorious act of play, each container or patch of land a living canvas for nature. Now on actual canvas each piece became my creative play extended. It felt almost whimsy to be attuned with so much colour vibrancy in the grey of the northern hemispheres winter.
These ten artworks flowed through seasons with an energy of their own, until they re-gathered as an arc at the exhibition in March 2026.
In receiving what nature offers, in noticing, really feeling, that is when we often find ourselves wanting to give back. To grow, to tend and to create. To protect what sustains us. That reciprocity is at the heart of this work, and I am already wonderfully engaged with how 2026 will grow, both in green spaces and the nature connection work I do.
If you grow flowers, or work with them, or simply love them, this series is for you. The flowers in these paintings were grown in a garden in the south of England. It’s an honour to share them. →
A little of the why — if you feel curious………
Semir Zeki's research on the subject of neuroaesthetics shows that the human response to beauty lies deep in our biological makeup. The same neural pathways engaged by a living flower are engaged by its painted equivalent. Art is not decoration. It is the same gift, held differently.
Iain McGilchrist describes love as attending to another living entity, meeting it as it is, without reducing it to what we can easily understand. That is what co-creating with nature has always asked of me.
E.O. Wilson's biophilia hypothesis further reinforced Jung's observation that we need the nourishment that comes from nature. Our response to botanical beauty is not preference or luxury. It is a human need. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in Braiding Sweetgrass that paying attention is itself an act of reciprocity with the living world, receiving its gifts with open eyes and open heart. I'd encourage you to read her inherited and grown wisdom if you haven't already it is wonderful.
