Closer Still brings together a new collection of paintings that continue my exploration of birds, flowers and still life through bold colour, simplified form and a deepening sense of observation.

Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, I use colour not to describe the natural world but to reimagine it. Familiar subjects become heightened through vivid palettes, graphic outlines and carefully balanced compositions, creating paintings that move between the recognisable and the imagined. Colour becomes a way of expressing feeling as much as form.

This exhibition also introduces the first paintings in an evolving series inspired by the Dutch Golden Age of still life. Rather than recreating these historic works, I use them as a starting point to further explore my own fascination with nature and its depiction through painting. Their carefully arranged compositions provide a framework through which I can reimagine familiar birds, flowers and insects in my own visual language, inviting us to look again at subjects we often overlook. Alongside these new works are paintings of birds and flowers that continue my long-standing fascination with the natural world and the quiet significance of everyday species and familiar forms. Increasingly, my practice is less about depicting nature and more about paying attention to it.

Closer Still marks a new stage in my practice. It reflects an ongoing dialogue between tradition and contemporary painting, observation and imagination. Colour is not simply a visual language within these paintings, but a way of encouraging us to pause, look more closely and reconnect with the natural world that continues to surround us.