It’s all about bringing raucous joy

THERE’S something peculiarly English about going for walks. Country rambles are not only a national pastime, but immersion in Nature has long been an inspiration to our creative types. Turner was a prodigious walker—Delacroix commented adversely on his heavy boots—and Elgar famously drew musical inspiration from walking in the Malvern Hills. A Batt illustration of the composer in his study shows his spaniel waiting for walkies, paws on the desk.

Mark Hearld is not a composer, nor a landscape painter, but immersion in Nature is equally vital to his art. Rather than taking the long view of landscape, he homes in on the flora