Hello Ian,
No - it's not a stupid question at all...but a really interesting (and lovely!) one to ponder....
I would definitely call myself an arty person. I do some freelance writing (fictional stories for children's magazines), fitted around being a busy mum - and I have a degree in English Literature. My two passions - Literature and Nature are, for me, totally linked. I'm in such awe of the poets...Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, John Clare, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney...etc..and nature writers such as my long time favourite, the great Richard Mabey - and the poet/essayist I've just begun reading, Kathleen Jamie....who all capture the beauty and detail of the flowers, animals, birds, wild scenes they see; and above all give us a real jolt of recognition in their ability to capture their responses to nature. Hey, yes!..we think...That's it; that's just how I feel!
Maybe all this writing and reading gets me closer to Nature ...or it clarifys what I already feel close to (I'm not sure which comes first!) It's all about connection for me I think. The way we connect with nature and how we express it to ourselves and share it with others....And, for me, it's about learning about all the connections that exist between everything that lives...A big amazing, ecological pattern! Like you, my arty outlets are part of wanting other people to love it all too!
I'm really interested in what you say about the visual art connection to nature...I'm just getting into nature photography - and find myself looking at everything - a Jackdaw on a chimney, a flower's petals in sunlight, a bright yellow snail shell against a wall... as if I'm composing a picture...wanting to capture what's so special about each of those little glimpses of the natural world...
I've always loved trying to draw nature too, and love poring over artists' paintings of flowers, birds etc. It gets you so close to the detail - really makes you look and see. And I love how music connects us to nature too (both man-made music and, say, the songs of birds...or of whales...etc)
I once did an adult education Botany course at Bristol University - and I found the scientific approach of looking down microscopes at petals, stigmas, pollen etc, along with the careful field work of the naturalist I've tried to train into myself over all the years...all underpinned by arty appreciation - just combines perfectly into an insight to blow my mind at the amazing beauty and detail of natural things...
Well - hope that wasn't too waffly!
Willow