In the catalogue of the 1979 Hayward Annual exhibition (op.cit.,p.66) Durrant discussed her approach and working methods: I add another wash of pink to the centre of the flower. You’re trying to keep the lights and darks in tact, but also want to unite the different areas of the flower. It’s something of a balancing act.

The artist has pointed out that, as her paintings are not concerned with the straightforward depiction of external events, her choice of an image, colour or texture may initially be prompted by her experience as recorded in her note-books, but when she begins to paint, the needs of the painting itself dictate the way these elements are eventually combined, amended or organised. I then add the tiniest dashes of yellow to the inside regions of the claw petal. This not only echoes the colouration of the flower, but adds something of a “pop” where the dark central zone abuts the yellow. Exh: Jennifer Durrant, Recent Paintings, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, March–April 1979 (no catalogue, listed on duplicated sheet); Hayward Annual 1979, Hayward Gallery, July–August 1979 (9, repr.)

Below is a real-time video of me painting this everlasting sweet pea. It’s a very long film, over an hour, but I discuss every process in detail as I go along. I’m currently working on a series of sketchbook style illustrations of common cultivated garden plants (like the sweet pea); there’s a possibility these will illustrate a book on foraging in the garden in the next year or so. You’re going to be putting a layer of pale pink on the flower next. Mix up a very pale tint of pink, and be sure you make it paler with clean water rather than with white paint. Apply this to the outer edges of the flower, and the darker zone at the centre of the flower. Be sure to follow the lines of growth with your paint brush, and don’t be heavy handed. You can always make watercolour darker, but you can’t lighten it! This is my trusty paintbox (what a mess) with me mixing up some purple to go into the green on the stem. I favour Winsor & Newton paints, and much prefer using Winsor & Newton series 7 brushes to any other sort.

Mixing up the wash to go on the sweet pea. This is a similar mix to before, but with much more water and no brown.

Colour tools

Apply in dry conditions, above 5 degrees Celsius and when bad weather is not forecast, minimum of 2 coats required. The final colour will vary depending on the surface and number of coats. If adhesion is inadequate on previous coatings, lightly sand before application. Make sure wood has been pre treated with appropriate wood preserver to prevent wood and decay. Once your botanical illustration has dried, work into the inner petals a bit more. Add some detail, and balance the different parts of the flower by adding pinks to this central zone. Before leaving London, Durrant had become increasingly dissatisfied with the direction her work was taking; she had produced no large scale paintings for some time and her output was mostly confined to small drawings. In retrospect, she sees the Canadian trip (which she has compared in its liberating effect on her subsequent work to her first visit to the United States in 1972) as a major turning point, and has attributed the bolder and more confident looking paintings she started on her return to the general sense of exhilaration and optimism the trip had given her.