I am a great collector of interesting fabrics (it’s a passion I developed from when I studied Textiles at Art College ) and both these paintings were inspired by the fabric design.

The Veggie Patch was great fun to create. I purchased the same vegetables that were in the actual fabric design and at first I wasn’t sure If It would work as I thought It might be confusing but somehow the composition gelled and the Veggies ‘popped out’ from the background.

I did the same thing with Fruit and Fabric but this time I managed to match the colours of the fruit to the background fabric. Paintings of this nature are quite labour intensive but patience pays off and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Kate Collins