Alongside portraiture, flowers feature in my artwork regularly, whether in a portrait or still life, or as a batik floral painting.

With their intense colours, natural perfection and delicate range of textures and shapes, flowers give me great pleasure and inspire the designer in me. In some of my work the vase features as a focal point, in later batiks I concentrate on the flowers in a more natural state or as specimens.

The natural beauty and range of delicate floral structures present endless design potential and drawing challenges, so I am regularly drawn to them as batik subject matter.

Flowers can hold symbolic meaning and I have often used them in my batik portraits to emphasise a mood or something about the character or experience of the sitter. They can help tell a story as well as making the composition more interesting and colourful visually.