Caroline Walker is one of my favourite working artists. The observations in her work are so exquisitely rendered that they often feel almost uncanny. Such was the case when I encountered her 2025 painting Kitchen Table.

It shows a young girl, perhaps five or six, drawing with quiet concentration, a pink felt tip gripped firmly in her hand. In the foreground sits a bright yet somehow wild bouquet – a mix of polished pink blooms and smoky lilac thistles. The paper it was wrapped in, along with the scissors used to trim the stems, spills across the table.

The scene struck me because it could have been lifted straight from my own childhood. To me, these flowers tell a story: a mother once as unbridled in her creativity as her young daughter, now finding moments for it where she can – arranging a shop-bought bouquet into something both sculptural and joyful.

But that’s just my interpretation. Flowers have shifting meanings for different periods, places and people – which is why they make for a rich exhibition theme.

Walker’s painting is on show at Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. Our reviewer, artist Judith Brocklehurst, likened the curation – featuring works by Walker alongside Henri Rousseau, Chris........

© The Conversation