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BBC Four interviewed artist Jo Self on her work with flowers - more about her Sunflower
 This series looks at roses, tulips, sunflowers and lilies in art. Do you have any particular feelings about any of these flower types?
I'm very keen on roses. I've got a single yellow rose, which I've grown from a tiny stalk, and now it's about eight feet tall. It hasn't flowered yet, but when it does I'm going to paint it.
One of my first paintings was a lily. I put a snake in it and gave it to my brother. He was horrified! But lilies have something creepy about them. I did paint another early lily, and then I couldn't help it - I painted a hand coming out from the bottom to grab it!
I like sunflowers. The sunflower was the first flower I showed my son when he was born. He stretched out his arm and went "Ooohh!" And it's so big - bigger than a baby's head. I think they're amazing.
I don't get on with tulips, every time I've painted a tulip it looks like plastic. But I'm planning to do another a tulip painting - of those beardy ones with the crinkly petals.
What is your favourite flower?
Probably what I'm painting at that moment, or whatever catches my eye. For instance, there was a beech leaf on my bathroom floor this morning. I just looked at it and thought what an amazing structure because it was so three-dimensional, and if you imagined it six feet square it would look like a bronze sculpture. These forms of flowers set my imagination cooking. Morning Glory is a most beautiful flower but it's really difficult to paint because it only lasts for about 10 minutes - so I love it and hate it all at once because I have to work very fast.
What inspires and influences your work?
Nature does. In winter I get all tired and thoughtful, and then in spring, when I see the narcissus out and birds singing I get excited - it's the promise of a new dawn I suppose. I start gardening and drawing things.
How do you decide what to paint?
I'm a grower, and I've been out sourcing peculiar plants. I'll get to know them in my garden, and wait to see what they do. I'll let my garden go mad and the flowers go wherever they want and I'll think "ooh, that's wonderful" and I'll paint it.
I'm determined that gardens and gardening should be an art form and a sort of philosophy. Even if people live in tower blocks and all they've got is a balcony with a couple of pot plants, they're still engaged upon something that is hopeful and beautiful.
What impact has dyslexia had on your art?
Well it's an advantage in art. Dyslexia goes with talent. I'm very visual. It's like I've got less of something and more of something else, so it's a gift actually.
How do you use colour in your paintings?
There are always two colours in a flower - one underneath and one on top - that's why they look so rich in colour. It's not always possible to grasp the colour of the flower so I use under-painting to suggest the vibrancy of the colour. I'm also trying to get the impact of colour, form and ideas across.
What impact did working as an artist-in-residence at Kew have on your work?
It had quite a big impact. I was deeply embarrassed at working in public. There'd be people standing next to me and videoing me so I've learnt to do a drawing in sometimes as quick as 10 minutes.
It also gave a very lush dimension to my work. Before I went to Kew my paintings were much flatter and more abstracted. They became more three-dimensional, sometimes quite repellently so.
Can you tell me about your charity involvement?
Kew scientists are working with botanists in Madagascar to help save plants at risk of extinction, and I donated some of my Kew sales revenue to that appeal. My subject is nature and flowers and I want to put back into the natural world a bit of what I've taken out. That makes me happy to go forward and do more paintings. Art isn't just for the cappuccino set. And art does have relevance in two ways: it inspires people and it gives people a way of thinking, a different philosophy; and it can make a physical change through charity work.
Kew Madagascar appeal
More of Jo's work on the Redfern Gallery site
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