A metal tankard and a brass plate, flowers, shiny fabric, a half peeled orange, they are all challenges that I wanted to meld into a subtle coloured still life.  In fact the orange was not part of it all to begin but as I worked on the first stages of the painting it was evident that a higher chroma focal point was necessary.  Higher chroma?  Orange is a high chroma colour – it is a vivid colour.  Most colours can be low chroma – subdued, low value – darker, high chroma – vivid, high value – paler.  The different textures found in citrus fruit are very absorbing to paint.  This is the kind of thing that I find fascinating along with pretty much every other aspect of painting.  Working for many hours on a canvas draws one in to another world where the folds and bends of fabric take on their own landscape in fact they become a landscape, as do the other elements.  The Poppy emerges from the darkness casting its own shadow which becomes part of the whole.  The writing on the Tankard is clearly there, but unreadable – make of it what you will.  

Oil on linen   2015   67 x 57cm    26 x 22in