Angie Lewin’s solo exhibition Patters of Nature opened at Watts Contemporary Gallery on Sunday 24 March with the launch of her new book The Book of Wild Flowers (written with Christopher Stocks). Here, Angie introduces some of her favourite wild flowers.

The Book of Wild Flowers is a very personal collection of wild flower portraits. Christopher Stocks, a fellow obsessive plant-spotter, has written the text which reflects his eclectic and wide-ranging botanical knowledge. In my work, I don’t aim for botanical accuracy but try to capture what defines the essence of a plant. These four long-familiar native species anchor me in the landscape, inspiring me to make sketches, prints and paintings.

Alexanders

The first prints I made after moving from London to the North Norfolk Coast featured alexanders. Once we’d settled into the countryside, I could really focus on sketching and printmaking again. Alexanders are very important to me as their graphic silhouettes outlined against the sea and sky of this exposed coastline defined the Norfolk landscape. Each day, I would walk our dog from the village down a stony track to the clifftops and make sketches or simply observe their sculptural forms with views to the windswept North Sea beyond.

Teasels

I was warned never to allow teasels into my garden, but I didn’t listen. I just can’t resist their spiky, branching stems and the elegantly curved spines which radiate from the bases of their tactile seedheads. Tall and narrow, they emerge from amongst lower-growing plants and look stunning when frosted. Each time I paint them or create a linocut or wood engraving, I experiment with ways to depict the geometric complexity of their seedheads. The ring of soft lilac flowers which appears on the teasels in the summer adds to the possibilities when painting or printing

Thrift

If you crouch down to observe a tiny, pink thrift flower in detail, it seems impossibly fragile, and yet it thrives in the most exposed environments. I often visit North Uist in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, and it’s always a joy if this coincides with when the sea pinks, as thrift is also known, are in flower. The flowers, which can shade from the palest possible sugary pink through to bright magenta, are held on narrow stems which emerge from a dense cushion of narrow leaves. Often, the thrift threads through the tumble of gneiss boulders on the beach. They can also be spotted clinging valiantly to cracks in exposed cliff faces or outlined in silhouette blasted by salt-laden sea spray on coastal rocks.

Devil's bit scabious

This wild flower defines summer days down by the River Spey close to my home and studio. I often sit down on the riverbank to sketch the way its tall, wiry stems twist and curve through grasses, yarrow and plantain. I like to contrast the different leaf forms and growth patterns within this plant community. It’s hard to spot the scabious until its pale blue-purple pincushion flowers appear amongst the papery seedpods of yellow rattle.

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