Two women sit together where the garden has grown up around them. I built the figures first — the faces, the quiet directness of them — and then let everything else come loose: tulips, foliage, the tangle of colour that rises from below and almost claims them. I wanted that pull between composure and abundance, the sense of two people held still inside something that won’t stop moving.
The palette came out of a particular light — pale pinks, chalk blues, cream — the kind of high, soft light I associate with long northern summers.
