"Roots" was created during my first year at Fine Art. I had been trying to mimic "The Natural World", immersing myself and photographing trees and plants. My depictions of plants using paints weren't what I was looking for. Eventually, in frustration, I put down some paper, (5ft X 7ft), and soaked it with water, and then applied paint. The forms created as the paint slowly dried over a series of several days did exactly what I had been trying to do "by hand", forming complex natural patterns that mimicked roots, or neurone and brain connections. It reminded me of the roots of a Newton Fig Tree, and thus named it "Roots". My father had always had an interest in the natural patterns formed in nature - like the rivulets of an estuary joining a sea, or sediment at the bottom of your teacup. He was interested in how these patterns were formed. These "natural" hollows and drying patterns, I feel, echo that line of enquiry - the material itself creating shapes that mirror the subject matter I was pursuing.