Artist and gardener Emma Tennant on managing to paint despite small children (and ponies), in 1971

Stella, Eddie and Isabel learnt about self-discipline growing up on a farm… Somebody had to feed the cattle

THIS WAS TAKEN at my home in southern Scotland, near Newcastleton, Roxburghshire, where my studio and garden are. My husband, Toby, always wanted to be a farmer, and after a few years together we bought the farm – that was 50 years ago.

I must have been in my early 30s when this was taken, with three young children who are now quite old: Eddie, an expert in minerals, 54; Isabel, a gilder, 52; and Stella, an ex-model and a fashion designer for Holland & Holland, who’s 48. We always had fun painting and making things. The children learnt a lot about self-discipline growing up on a farm, because even if they were being a bolshie teenager, somebody had to feed the cattle. It’s a seven-days-a-week job.

I did do a bit of teaching, but I don’t think I was very good at it. My real vocation was always with the garden tools and paintbox, although I never thought I’d get to where I am now, with exhibitions in London – I just did it for fun. Like most mothers and farmers’ wives, I didn’t have much time to myself until the children had finished primary school and gone off to boarding school. I started painting to record what was growing in my garden, which is about a quarter of an acre – plants and fruits such as tulips, delphiniums, roses, plums, apples. When the children were quite young, I had to learn to be very quick as there were constant interruptions.

The pony in the photo was called Thomas. I used to ride him around on the farm, but I was never any good. I did try to learn because my children, who all had ponies, were having so much fun. I had Thomas for a long time, about 10 years.

My breakthrough was making the studio in the old farm building (pictured here, behind me) some time later – there was no telephone and I couldn’t be disturbed. I love my own studio where it’s quiet and private, but I can also work in airport waiting rooms or hotels. One of the joys of watercolour is that it’s so portable: all you need is a paintbox, a board, a couple of brushes, and perhaps a jam jar.

I started painting professionally in the 1980s. A friend of mine saw a picture pinned up on the wall of the house and said he’d like to buy it. I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. Soon after, we had an exhibition in my friend’s flat in Warwick Square, London, in aid of the National Trust’s garden restoration of Biddulph Grange in Derbyshire, and so it grew – to use a gardening metaphor – from a little seed.

Now, Isabel gilds a lot of my frames. Sometimes I think, crikey, is this going to make a good picture? But when Issy brings them back they look fantastic – framing is an underestimated art.

I feel very attached to the paintings, and occasionally I keep a picture, but I think selling is all part of the process: knowing it finds a happy new home and it will be loved. And then you get on with the next one. — Interview by Jessica Carpani An exhibition of Emma Tennant’s paintings, A Botanical Tour of Great Britain from the Scillies to Sutherland, is at the Garden Museum, London SE1, until 28 April; gardenmuseum.org.uk

Emma Tennant at her home in Roxburghshire, Scotland, where she still lives