Roses IV, 24" x 30", September 2004, Oil pastel on canvas, £300

This painting began as an experiment (as the more successful paintings usually do, no sketches, just me 'winging it' as I make everything up). Having painted roses before with my usual palette of acrylic paints, I sought to bring a very different quality to the next attempt. I wanted to summon notions of an 'old world' of antiques and family heirlooms, home-made perfumes, velvet nicotine-stained wallpaper, an old clockwork tin train set spread out upon the knitted rug, the clink of the best china cups reserved for guests against silver spoons, subdued sitting rooms and polite conversation on a wet autumn Sunday afternoon with the ladies from church.