Gillian Carnegie is a young British artist working within the traditional categories of painting: still-life, portraiture, landscape and the figure. Yet, while appearing to conform to the established language of those genres, her works consistently challenge their conventions. Using a palette dominated by earthy muted tones, Carnegie usually works in series, periodically returning to the same image or subject but varying her approach each time. Thirteen features a withering bunch of flowers in a cut-down plastic bottle. The carefully worked bouquet contrasts with the crude, loose brushstrokes of the backdrop, confusing the relationship between foreground and background. Belonging to Carnegie’s series of still-lifes begun in 2001, Thirteen clearly represents her ongoing exploration of the relationship between paint and subject, surface and image and the limits between abstraction and representation.