In fact the colours are so vivid - so seemingly exaggerated that I am curious as to how close they are to what she saw. Miranda laughs, “you mean is that how I see colours? I’ve been asked that before. No, I don’t know what it is with me and colour. I think it comes from my family. My mother was from South Africa and my great great grandmother was French. I get it from them.”

Just as important to Ellis is a concern with scale. “I’m interested in the relation of spaces. That’s what I am trying to do with the animals in the compositions.” Working first on the spot, Miranda gets down what she sees in pen and ink or watercolours and then works on the final pieces - and adds the colour back in her studio in Ditchling. “I often work on several at the same time”, she says. “I paint in oil, building up the colours in layers. It can take weeks to get it right. It’s a very slow process.” It is here that Ellis makes the decisions about what moods she is communicating with the piece, using glazes and a variety of different brushes to create different effects.

“I’ve also experimented with dry pigment,” she laughs. “Although I’m not quite reconciled with that yet.” She pauses, “I’m never sure where I’m going with a piece, though. But I suppose that’s what keeps me going.” ER