Barbara in the chair

A barefoot girl sits cross-legged in the seat of a swivel office chair lined with a folded quilt like a nest, absorbed in a large picture book. Behind her, a low white shelving unit holds potted plants and a white cat curled up watching her at the right. A pair of slipper-toys sits abandoned on the wooden floor below.

Rendered in pastel with a pale, high-key palette of cream, blue-grey and soft ochre, the scene is bathed in even, diffused light with almost no cast shadow. Textures are built from light cross-hatched strokes, from the nubby quilt to the wood-grain floor. The child's total absorption in her book gives the picture a quiet domestic warmth.