One of the benefits of shipping my entire studio across the Atlantic and part of the Pacific is that I’ve been able to reassess paintings I wasn’t wholly happy with before. I reworked passages of paint on this piece today and I’m happier with it than when it was new. The woman belongs to the Akha hilltribe group in the Golden Triangle and her extraordinary headdress is made of silver from British Indian coinage as well as thousands of glass and ceramic beads.