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In "Stargazing" I wanted to express the intensity and colour of these beautiful Star Gazer Lilies. Pink lilies have punctuated the major events in my life; my wedding day and the births of my daughters. I adore their sweet heady scent that instantly reconnects me with these intimate memories. I started with a loose watercolour images of the flowers and built up the textures with acrylic paint (for the contrast of opacity with the translucency of the watercolour) and collaged a few pages from my diary to link the flowers visually with my memories.

I first became attracted to watercolour over 30 years ago on a painting holiday in Cornwall. I loved the immediacy and fluidity of the medium. When I painted the old rooftops of the quirky yet beautiful old buildings, colours ran together giving an organic feel to the moss and old slates. I felt like I'd discovered a magic colouring book! The watercolour captured the essence of my subjects in an ethereal way. Enchanted by the possibilities of creating a new, dream-like reality within my paintings, I developed my style with an emphasis on the effects I could achieve with Watercolour, by letting the paint and water form patterns in their own way. I love to break the old fashioned rules of the medium, pushing it to its limits. As...