About : Rachel Hilton - Artist and Illustrator based in Ledbury, Herefordshire

I love painting and nature, so it made sense that ultimately my two interests would become one. I spend many hours in the woodland next to my home sketching, taking photographs and gathering materials. Most of my inspiration comes from particular trees I feel a connection with, or the wildlife I experience when I am sitting quietly.

Sometimes I enjoy the challenge of realism and other times I like to completely escape into my imagination so I can create fantasy landscapes, fairies and abstract imagery. Either way I try to express my spiritual or emotional connection to a subject. Often I will think it’s all from in my head only to realise later on that it is something I have seen previously when I compare my finished painting with my reference photos. The work I did for my Fine Art Degree was a similar process when I explored my childhood memories by painting how I remembered things from my past.