In 2018 I was 50 years old and I was thrilled when one of the major public art galleries in Cornwall, Falmouth Art Gallery, celebrated my birthday with a major retrospective art exhibition and book looking back at my life and all the key paintings I had made. I think it became obvious to the more than 10,000 people who attended the exhibition that much of my work celebrated the natural world and I think it was a surprise for some people to discover I had been travelling, exploring biodiversity, ethnobotany and climate change issues for years.

In the video below Sir Tim Smit, KBE, the co-founder of the Eden Project neatly sums up how my work manages to celebrate the world, but also reminds us that it is at risk. This was filmed at the opening of my retrospective exhibition in 2018.

There are so many subjects I want…