Abi Edgar at work

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COMBINING parenting with your work sounds like a recipe for the perfect balance – and for artist Abi Edgar, her latest show manages to do just that.

Over years of school runs, Abi had drawn on her experiences to create a new body of work and the images have become nostalgic reminders as her children grow up and leave home.

She said: “The School Run series started because I got really frustrated by having just got into the swing of a day’s painting when it was time to down tools and go to pick up from school or nursery.

“On the plus side, in winter especially, I was often out and about at sunrise or sunset, so there were plenty of atmospheric skies and streetscapes to look at. So I started taking photos to keep me entertained.

“Then as the extra-school activities increased and I had to drive more. I’d take a sketchpad. I’d go early and park up, to avoid some of the traffic and road rage, and sketch while I waited. It felt like I was clawing back some time for myself, and keeping hold of my focus and identity, which often felt hard as a self-employed artist and mum.”

Her previous shows have included studies of the natural world, with trees on Hampstead Heath, willing models. They too mark a time of the year, she adds, but the school-run series is an important visual reminder of family times.

“I noted the times and dates on the back, so in the end they became a visual diary of those years of parties and playdates, dental appointments, sports fixtures, kickboxing and ballet classes, haircuts,” she said.

“Usually I’d produce a more complete image once back in the studio. Seeing them now, en masse, I’m struck by the lack of any figures, and the romantic spin I’ve put on them. There is one street in Belsize Park in the early morning mist that could be a view of Bruges, which was possibly pure escapism?

“My eldest has gone off to uni this year so it now feels like a good bank of memories.”

While the dates on the back of her works illustrate a passage of time, it also touches on longevity, as illustrated through her studies of trees.

She said: “I get a strong feeling of continuity about certain spots as if things have happened there over and over for centuries – a hollow in Highgate Woods, a pathway on the Heath.

“I find that a huge comfort, and I suppose I see trees as witnesses to all that has taken place. Oxfordshire is where my elderly parents relocated to a few years back and I find it an incredibly rich and rewarding landscape to draw – the same sense of ancient goings-on.”

And while most of the images are close to home, the Dartmouth Park-based artist has included a study made halfway round the world.

She said: “We went a few years ago to Japan, and I’m still trying to process all I saw there. For this show I have done one huge charcoal painting of enormous trees lining a temple alleyway. It’s the sense of something spiritual that appeals in trees, rather than their external and aesthetic qualities, which are also so enticing.”

l Trees and Florals is at the York Street Gallery in Marylebone now