17/09/2026
I’m very excited to finally share the beginning of a new project and collaboration with VAA OpenSpaces2026, Dalkeith Country Park, Restoration Yard and Charlotte Rostek.
Nature & Nurture is a new body of work exploring our relationship with nature and the positive impact that spending time really observing nature can have on our wellbeing.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be exploring Dalkeith Country Park, collecting natural materials and looking closely at the natural cycle of plant life, from roots to decay and everything in between.
These will become the starting point for a series of new still life photographs, but this time I'm getting out of my studio and creating inside the historic interiors of Dalkeith Palace!
I’m going bigger in both senses -creating larger and more challenging still life arrangements and printing the finished photographs at a much larger scale.
At the heart of the project is something quite simple: taking time to look. To notice the things around us, to appreciate the beauty in every stage of plant life. By doing this nature has the power to heal and restore.
The project will culminate in a month-long exhibition as part of The Visual Arts Association - VAA OpenSpaces2026, a global art trail in everyday spaces (although I think a palace is hardly everyday!) - running from 2–28 November 2026 at Restoration Yard, Dalkeith Country Park.
There is a lot to do between now and November, so I’ll be sharing the process along the way - from the first walks in the park to the making of new work.
Nature & Nurture begins here.
Visual Artists Association (VAA) Dalkeith Country Park
Restoration Yard
