I'm going through a bit of a protea period at the moment – just loving painting them, especially in these gorgeous West German vases. This is a small gouache study for a planned oil painting some time in the future. I like using limited and unusual colour combos and simplifying my still life studies down to the core elements – shapes and lines. This is where my own signature/personal painting style starts to take shape – when I focus less on technique and accuracy, and more on getting across the characteristics of my subject, just like the way children draw.