Margaret Mee. English Explorer and Painter of Amazon Flora - Born in Chesham, England, in May 1909. - Studied at St Martins School of Art and later at the Camberwell School of Art. - Went to Brazil with her husband Greville, a commercial artist, in 1952. - Made her first expedition to the Amazon in 1956 at the age of 47. - Made 15 further expeditions to the Amazon. The last expedition took place in May 1988. - She never painted or drew from photographs. She painted what she saw. - She published two books of her paintings in 1968 and 1980. - She achieved an ambition of 36 years to paint the night-flowing Amazon Moonflower only in 1988. - Her diaries, In Search of the Flowers of the Amazon Forest, were published in 1988. - A botanist who knew her well described her as follows. 'Many people have travelled Amazonian waters, many people have painted Amazonian plants, but Margaret Mee outranks those other travellers and artists simply because she, with her watercolours, went, saw and conquered the region. She has been able to fill her subjects with the reality of their environment.' Margaret Mee went on her first expedition to the Amazon in______.