50 x 70 cm

Acrylic paint, hand-spun wool thread and cotton thread on canvas.

Unframed

A playful red figure appeared spontaneously in the painting and gradually became the centre of the work. Half animal and half childlike companion, it moves through a bright garden of flowers, marks, blue forms, stitches and thread.

The piece combines acrylic painting with hand-spun wool thread and cotton thread, linking directly to the artist's textile background. The threaded surface gives the painting a tactile, handmade quality, as if the garden has been grown, stitched, and painted into being.

There is a lightness in this work, but not a lack of seriousness. The red figure feels awkward, affectionate, comic, and alive - a strange little fellow who has entered the garden and made the whole painting more vivid.