At the time this painting was acquired the artist was concerned with the fundamental human themes of birth, growth, nourishment and the place of humanity within nature. She wrote of The Self and Familythat is was the first painting she had done after having had her first child, Sam, in 1984. ‘He was born in February and the painting was done at the beginning of the Spring. It was still quite gloomy and dark but flowers were appearing everywhere. We had just moved into a new house with a garden. My studio overlooked the garden and I became very aware of growth and fertility. All the time I was pregnant with Sam (during the last months especially) I had very strong images of flower paintings that I wanted to do. Big flowers with people peering into them. I often begin paintings with a vague idea like this. The people swimming around in the flower vase came towards the end. At first glance I feel they could be read as goldfish – on closer inspection it’s obviously a little family of humans. I enjoy playing about with scale and the huge woman overlooking them seems both protective and separate. It’s obviously an autobiographical work and forms the centrepiece of three paintings with flowers done at the same time’.