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Sun worshiper is an adaptation of the Golden Sunflower image. Each time I paint this sunflower, it turns out differently. The reason for this is because I let the paint flow around on the paper making different designs as it travels along the textured watercolour paper. Salt is added to some of these marbelled washes. In other areas I spatter blobs of gold ink and then blow them with a straw to make them run into spidery marks which can look like the veins in the leaves.

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...