Blue Interior with Guardian Diptych

This painting began as a simple still life in the studio — a ginger jar, a cutting from the garden, and a small blue guardian/foo dog figure I’ve had for years. I’m drawn to these kinds of objects, things that sit quietly in the background of daily life and slowly gather meaning over time.
As I worked, the painting shifted away from observation and became more intuitive. The space started to loosen and break apart, with forms drifting across the two panels rather than settling into place. The interior became less about a room, and more about a feeling — something familiar, but slightly off.
The diptych format allowed the image to move and breathe, so the painting doesn’t fully resolve. It sits somewhere between still life and abstraction, where memory, space and objects all overlap.

Overall size is 180 x 120cm consisting of 2 x panels at 90x120cm each panel. Please do not hesitate to message me if you have any questions or would like to see more images of this work.

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Floriosa is the botanical painting practice of Australian artist Sally Browne.
I've been making art for as long as I can remember. What was meant to be a one-year trip from the UK to Sydney in 1994 somehow became a permanent move, and Australia has been home ever since.
Much of my work begins outdoors. I love wandering through suburban streets noticing flowering trees, plants spilling over fences, unexpected colour combinations and the small details that most of us walk straight past. I often come home with armfuls of flowers, seedpods and odd little cuttings that eventually find their way into my paintings.

Although my work begins with observation, it rarely stays there. A vase of flowers, a flowering gum or a bird perched in the garden might provide the starting point, but colour, memory and imagination soon take over. I'm less interested in painting a particular flower than in capturing the feeling of being surrounded by nature.

Before becoming a full-time artist in 2015, I worked in graphic design, surface pattern and printmaking, experiences that continue to influence my love of colour, rhythm and composition. I'm also inspired by the simplicity and spontaneity of Chinese and Japanese ink painting, though over the years my own work has evolved into a looser, more contemporary style.

Alongside Floriosa, I maintain a contemporary fine art practice under my own name, exhibiting regularly throughout Australia. Over the past decade I've been fortunate to place hundreds of original paintings into private collections both here and overseas. These days, if I'm not in the studio, there's a good chance I'm wandering around Sydney with secateurs in my bag, bringing home flowers, seedpods and whatever else catches my eye.