This vertical portrait demonstrates mixed media, combining the gestural immediacy of charcoal with the richness of acrylic and the luminous quality of gold leaf on plywood. The artist has embraced the raw materiality of the support, allowing the wood's grain and texture to contribute to the overall aesthetic, with visible brushstrokes and textural buildup that give the work a tactile, almost relief-like quality.

The gold leaf dominates the composition through intricate spiral patterns, that represent roses, covering Jenny's clothing, creating a Byzantine or icon-like quality that elevates the everyday portrait into something more ceremonial. Jenny occupies the tall, narrow format in a straightforward yet effective composition, with the spiral motifs creating a hypnotic rhythm that flows from her patterned garment down into an abstract continuation below.

The restrained but warm colour palette of golds, oranges, and browns against the dark ground creates dramatic contrast, while the red-orange rose, known as Saints roses, provide a crucial chromatic accent rendered in thick impasto that makes them three-dimensional. There's an intriguing tension between the casual, contemporary nature of the subject of Jenny in glasses and everyday dress, holding flowers with a gentle smile and the formal, almost sacred treatment through gold leaf and icon-like presentation, suggesting a celebration of the ordinary person elevated to revered status as the work celebrates her 80th birthday.

The work succeeds in creating visual impact through its bold material choices and raises interesting questions about value and commemoration by applying techniques historically reserved for religious icons and royalty to what appears to be an everyday person, democratising these visual traditions and suggesting that ordinary lives hold their own sacred significance.