Wild Moment: David Mitchell
Angus-based artist David Mitchell's beautiful book - A Brush with Fungi - is the result of a 30-year artistic journey that included discovering a new species.
My involvement in fungi stemmed from my interest in birdwatching. Every autumn I would see a variety of different fungi when out birdwatching and wondered if any were edible.
Eventually I bought a book on fungi to help identify the species. However the text and fungi images were not that great. Even buying another book to cross reference only helped a bit.
I persevered and through careful trial and (very few) errors I was able to ID some of the common edible ones. Of course two books led to me buying others, but I never found one that seemed to have all the information and clear photos or illustrations that satisfied me.
This led me to think about painting the different fungi species myself and writing down the key points for specific identification. As a trained artist and with an increasing interest in their differing shapes, colours, textures etc. I thought I would take up the challenge.
That was 30 years ago! It was a project I worked on periodically, not every year.
My approach was to paint each species from above, looking down on the cap, from the side, from underneath the cap and cut in half. An almost forensic approach, but one that covered every angle.
I painted them all in watercolour - either on the spot, or I'd take them back to my studio to work on. Next to each painted image I would write about the salient characteristics and any points that helped with Identification. Some of the UK's top mycologists checked my identifications and proofread the text.
My interest in wildlife led me to meet Chris Packham on several occasions. On one I showed him some of the original artwork and he was so impressed that he kindly offered to write a foreword for the book.
30 years later I had 260 different fungal species painted and was ready for the last stage. I decided to self publish so that I had full artistic control over how the book was to look. I worked closely with a graphic designer and printing company the 400 page, A4 hardback book was printed in July 2025.
^ Actor/director David Hayman (pictured left) looks through David Mitchell's lovely watercolour illustrations.
In the short time it has been available it has had two glowing reviews and the professional mycologists who helped me are full of praise.
© David Mitchell 2025
