Floral Vanitas-Ode to Rachel Ruysch

This earthly paradise, a garden of love, full of flowers, a reflection of beauty, vitality, growth and life. This piece is inspired by Dutch vanitas paintings; a feast of earthly symbols, decadency, exuberance, melodrama of a hanging tulip petal, against its underlaying darker side of mortality.

My work is also associated with the growing awareness of the environment, as a reminder to protect the natural world, a momento mori.

Rachel Ruysch is one of my favourite flower painters from the Dutch 17th century.

Embroidery of 3D flowers, plants and roots H110xW90 cm