The love of flowers – Anthophilia – is the essence of this show. It is the thread that runs through this body of work, punctuated by explorations into new themes.

The garden series began a few years ago, inspired by my love of gardening. They are quietly evolving with a focus on the palette, exploring how a tapestry of flowers work together in the composition. As a gardener I suffer the disappointment when planting goes awry in real life. It’s a joy to rectify this and to create the garden I aspire to with my brushes.

The blackbird appears as much as he does in my own garden. Touches of black anchor the work. Just as it serves as a device in the garden collection, so this continues in my new cat series. These came about through furthering what I try to do in the tabletop paintings, which is to pare back, simplify and let the subtlety of quiet layers of flickering paint speak for itself. It’s not about the cat. There are exhausting levels of detail in the garden studies, so it calms the mind to interchange between the different methods of practice.

There’s barely a window sill in sight in this exhibition, I’ve climbed through the window for this one. A nod to the room with a view is present in the paintings of Mallorca, albeit saturated with a warmer Mediterranean palette. Above all, what I’m enjoying most is the use of more colour in this collection. Colour and love of things that bring me joy. I hope in turn that this is shared by others.