Olive Grove. Painting, acrylic on canvas with gold leaf detail 40 x 50cm. Olive started her life in a painting I made about one of my Mannequin candlesticks. In that picture the candlestick somehow became a young woman whose head and shoulders were where a candle would normally be. There she’s framed against the room’s window which opens onto a solid blue sky and blazing orange sun. I was, I am, enchanted by this Mediterranean muse and so I decided to paint her portrait as if she has stepped out of the picture. And thus of course into a new one.