You may remember about a million years ago Karen suggested a swap – she made me a beautiful cushion and in return I would produce a painting for her newly decorated house. Well. Many moons went by and finally…..I made it in the style of my current project, ‘Portraits Of My Friends’, using my usual collage/layered methods and in colours chosen by Karen (which I have hopefully done right), and with a sense of ‘Karen-ness’ about it. She wanted blue/grey/mustard but no yellow, so I’m hoping the big sweep of colour at the bottom passes the mustard test! I’d love to say I drew the trees, but no, they are decoupaged napkins. I bought them in New Zealand but thought they had quite an Orla Kiely feel, and if you’re a fan of Karen’s blog you will know that that should go down quite well! And obviously the K is for Karen and the ‘she sews’ is what you might call the ‘portrait’ part. The circular theme could be something really deep about life and friendship, but actually I’m just obsessed with circles.