I find my greatest inspiration directly from nature; not so much in the way that natural floras have evolved and how they co-exist, though this too is interesting, but more in the colours and moods created by light, landscape and water.
I’m lucky enough to have the RSPB site of Pulborough Brooks on my doorstep and so I went this week for a wander and took my sketchbook. I’ve always been drawn to wetlands because of the moods created by water, sometimes light, sometimes dark, always eliciting an emotion of some sort.
I was drawn particularly to this channel of water, with its light and dark ‘stripes’ across the surface of the water, and the way that it took your eye directly to Pulborough church on the horizon – I can see that this is a spot I will re-visit many times!
As a bonus, I saw the most beautiful marsh woundwort (Stachys palustris) in a pleasing association with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria); the bees were loving it and the flowers clearly thriving.
I’m looking forward to sketching the Brooks in all seasons, and to creating paintings of its many moods.
