Starting a new series. Small (200 mm x 125 mm / 8 ins x 5 ins) portraits of people who have a special appreciation of bees.

Some of the reasons people have told me they want to be painted with bees:

I love my flower garden. I love honey on toast. I love manuka honey for scratches - it heals them so well! I love forget-me-nots and lavender and so do bees. I have a fascination for New Zealand solitary bees. I have a few hives in the back garden. My favourite fruit is peaches, and without bees, no peaches. Bees are so cool. Bees work so hard and cooperate with each other, they are a good example to humans. I love almonds and the bees are needed to pollinate the almond flowers. Bees are in trouble. We need bees. Bees are part of the world. WIthout bees we'd have no honey.