‘No. VIII’ is taken from a broader series of ten pictures entitled ‘The Songs That Saints Sing Have No Ending’. All were made in the porch of St. Andrew’s Church, Claxton, Norfolk between 2019 and 2021.

The church porch represents a liminal space, a passage between the secular and the sacred. These pictures sit in that nether world. The south facing porch had two facing alcoves, both bricked in and white-washed, render that displays its robust brush marks, and, over time, its exposure to the cold and wind that penetrate its wooden lattice door. The pictures were made in both opposing niches and all depict the flowers and arrangements that I found there. The recess of each alcove alludes to 17th Century Dutch and Spanish flower paintings. However, rather than displaying blooms from all seasons in one painting, these photographs, flowers taken from the local fields, hedgerow and gardens, represent the cyclic nature of the seasons. Made during the lockdowns, this felt, to me, reassuring and poignant.