Margaret enjoyed employing fruit and plants as symbols for her deeper musings on the symbolic and the spiritual. The peaceful experience of a still life reminded her of the spirituality of a Vermeer domestic interior, the work here asking the viewer to consider the dualities of life – the dark moving to light (and vice versa) – the good and evil that resonate in the bible. She forces the viewer to create their own hierarchy of thought, the plants so full of colour and life are perched on the edge of an abyss, ready to tumble into the dark.

The drawing and painting in this work is splendid, not only are the banksias meticulously observed but Margaret overlays the work with her habitual patterning, the decorative element softening the starkness of her messaging. It is one of her best works in this genre and suggests her love of the subject as much as her passion for the colour and composition.