"Still life isn’t something I’ve painted since I was at art college, so this was a bit of challenge for me! It was important for me to make sure these paintings reflected my personality and complimented the kind of pictures I usually paint. They both contain elements which are autobiographical in nature: books about artists I love, musicians I admire, or fiction which inspires my art practice. The backdrop to the still life is my garden. I can’t help but bring the outdoors into my paintings, so even though the focus is on these ‘dead’ objects the world they inhabit is very much alive and I can’t separate that."