It's said that life should be the main source of inspiration in any creative practise- not the main source, but the staple of a varied palette of sources. 

I've found recently that I need frequent changes of scenery to stimulate my thinking about a project, so they usually start with a drawing trip.

My main project this year will explore fungus, and this time of the year provides plenty of opportunities to see a variety of fungi in various places.

I started things with a one-week short project where I made five illustrations in a loose and silent narrative inspired by my trip to Hillend.

I later returned to the pentland hills to gather fungus samples for spore printing, drawing, and collecting photos. Further forages were made in Bonaly, Blackford, and on the Meadows. 

Along the way, I became interested in large chemical plants that I had heard existed in Fife. There's some tongue-in-cheek online folklore surrounding the Mosmorran Gas Plant's flares: they are visible from any high place in Edinburgh and the Edinburgh subreddit jokingly worships "THE FLAME". I thought I would partake in the custom and make my own pilgrimage to see this flame from close by.

Chemical plants as a subject matter could be used to say something meaningful about the environment, and perhaps about Edinburgh's lesser-known areas on the outskirts that few non-locals will have explored. I also intend to visit the large chemical plant in Grangemouth, Fife, to draw more of the threatening pipes and surreal and gigantic man-made landscapes. This could be a point of contrast for my fungus project and if the two could merge it could be an opportunity to create a more fantastical narrative of futuristic, fungus-infested chemical wastelands- or am enchanted woodland growing over an abandoned industrial site.