This series of still life paintings was created in my Cedar Creek studio as I prepared to leave after fourteen years. Painted entirely from observation, each work celebrates the objects, plants, and light that shaped my time there. The vessels carry personal stories—gifts, souvenirs, and everyday treasures—while the flora was gathered from my garden and the surrounding land. These works reflect my love of winter light in the studio, the beauty of the familiar, and the way objects hold our histories. Painted in smaller formats as time grew short, the series embraces intimacy, nostalgia, and a deep connection to place.
Dresser’s Ginger Jar
Dresser’s was a three-storey shop on High Row in the centre of my hometown, Darlington. Part of the fabric of the town, it sold stationery on the ground floor, china on a mezzanine, and books and toys upstairs. My mum could remember when purchases were whisked away on a pulley system. In my teens, girls were often gifted Wedgwood china for their eighteenth birthdays—selecting a pattern and slowly collecting pieces for a dressing table. My own tastes have shifted since then, but the elegant shape of this ginger jar still appeals. In this painting, I’ve paired it with flowers from a relentlessly vigorous shrub—gorgeous in bloom, but a physical nightmare to cut back—capturing both beauty and the tug of memory.