Book excerpt: A passionate and purposeful book on finding real creativity through nature. An essential book for our times and all artists at whatever level. In her most passionate and personal book to date, acclaimed watercolour artist Ann Blockley takes both budding and more experienced artists through a series of ideas for working with nature – in its widest sense – to nurture our creativity, inspire us, make us more sustainable artists, and replenish energy and flow when our artistic streams run dry. In 'Go Outside and Play', the author exhorts artists to recapture a fun, no-pressure way of being outside and use that feeling when creating. In 'Connecting Materials to Place' she creates her own paint from the local pond. In 'The Slow Movement', the artist reveals her year of working on a specific local hedgerow and painting a series of different interpretation in its every-changing detail. She created regular creative rituals, using her weekly playing card as a starting point for a new painting to reflect the season each week. She reuses old paintings, and tissue and paper – wabi-sabi style – to create new textures and even new paintings. Including work from other artists as well as her own, she shows the ideas and work from textile and mixed-media artists. From allotment inspiration to reusing old painting and from nature prints to the alchemy of found materials, this is a journey to find new creativity through our connection with our natural world.