I returned to the Edinburgh Art Fair in November 2023, showing a selection of forest paintings with Linton 59. Edinburgh is always a serious context for contemporary work — the audience is engaged and the standard of exhibiting galleries is high.

Painting in front of an audience is a different kind of exposure. At Fresh Art Fair I demonstrated my approach to oil and cold wax — the layering, the resistance of the surface, the decisions made in real time. It is a useful discipline: the work has to speak without explanation.

Mike Tyson's remark has always struck me as unexpectedly apt for painting. You can plan a surface, intend a particular quality of light, work toward a specific resolution — and then the painting refuses. What happens next is where the real work begins.