Gumtree Branch

61 x 71 cms  2001

NFS

One of the things I have brought away from my years at Art College is that one must never become 'precious' about one's work. What the tutor really meant was that one absolutely had to sacrifice a 'good' bit if it was stopping the rest of the painting from coming to a resolution, but I believed she meant that one shouldn't particularly like one's work either and the majority of the time I don't. It never, ever comes out like I wanted it to.

This painting is an exception. It is one of the three 'white' still lives (the others being Fake Irises and Meditations on a Dead Parrot, recently reworked) and I really wanted to paint that gumtree branch. I spent hours looking for it in our scrub. It was chosen with great care.

The painting started off with a white wall behind but simply would not resolve itself;  however, once I  added the rose wallpaper it all hung together and got finished. Art images said, 'Why on earth did you have to add those awful roses' and true enough, it did not sell, and they did not get a commission.

It has been hanging, quietly and comfortably, in our lounge ever since.