Fleming’s Cockatoo

Egg tempera on panel, 32 x 40 cm, July 2023.

What would Alexander Fleming, the microbiologist who invented Penicillin, be interested in?

This ‘altar’ to Fleming considers his love of nature, his imagination, the beauty of peaches and a cockatoo.

If you’ve ever had a really sick child, you know the magic of antibiotics. When we lived in Singapore our children were always sick, especially the one who grew to be doctor.

Science is magic and in a way like painting, the kernel of an idea leads you down a path and the quest takes over. And when I was a kid Penicillin was bubble gum pink.