Fragments of the wild, natural world were the first things I ever photographed. The texture of a single blade of grass or the tightly curled fronds of an unopened fern leaf, for example, always attracted and inspired me more than wide-open scenes that swallow up these little pieces of the landscape in their vastness. After photographing these details, I can then rearrange and edit the collected fragments to create a fictional, abstract landscape of my own imagining.

I have a close relationship with the outdoors, particularly with trees. I like the way a solitary tree interrupts the dull flatness of a featureless field, or how a cluster of trees becomes somewhere to hide, and a forest a place to completely lose yourself in. Throughout autumn, everyone likes to watch as the leaves on the trees change colour and then fall off in a flurry of wind, or on calmer days, they fall one by one until there is only a single, solitary leaf clinging to the end of a branch. Underfoot, leaves- yellow, green, red- blanket the ground, making every inch of the pavement beautiful – while above, the complexity of the tree has fallen away to reveal the stark, simple shapes of branches stretching like sculptures towards the sky.

This work was commissioned by Derby Museum in 2015 to sit opposite a series of landscape artworks by various artists, including Derek Jarman, curated from the museum's collection.

More information about this exhibition can be found here