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While Naomi Frears pushes towards abstraction, she finds that "the figure insists on appearing - it's the means by which I communicate". She has travelled widely and the forms and colours of the Mediterranean are evident in many of her works. Her palette is subtle and warm in its dry richness of terracotta, gold, cream and black, sometimes quenched with clear blues. The inkiness of the darker hues, the smooth surfaces and her use of materials to print texture and pattern onto paintings reveal her background in printmaking.

Some of Frears' most lyrical images are driven by love of her family. Her husband's head and figure appear repeatedly, as with I Found You, 2003 (below) and, while expressing private feelings, are universal in their articulation of human bonds. "I'm always trying to get my work right", she says. "That must be to do with love, or what else are you doing?"