After the Karoo paintings proved popular, art collectors and galleries expressed interest in more but Tertia responded to numerous requests for paintings of flowers. She decided to use the still lives with flowers as opportunity to explore her technique more; applying the paint to the canvas with a pallet knife only. Mixing and working with the paint until the same translucent light could be seen in the still lives.

The portrait studies, although some of a much larger scale, also reflect the same light. The study of her father, and the Jonker family on holiday in 1934, was also a reflection and searching of the past times in which South Africans lived.