I painted this when I was living in Berlin. This and other paintings sprang out of a series of works on paper of small figures set within little scenes (which I made also out of paper). I then created little theatrical three-dimensional settings for them. This idea then graduated to sculpting small figures from polymer clay and placing them within contexts as subjects to paint – it accounts for the stiffness of the figure. She’s not a real person!

This little figurine is tiny, about the size of my hand in total and in this painting she is placed, face down, as in the title, against fur. I liked the mix of vulnerability, she’s in her underwear, a tiny little thing, facing away from the world and instead seeking the darkness and comfort of warm, soft fur.

Medium: oil on canvas

Canvas stretcher is thin-edged 1.5cm

Year: 2013