In November 2022 I exhibited new paintings at the Edinburgh Art Fair with the Darryl Nantais Gallery. The EAF draws galleries from across the UK and internationally — it remains one of the more rigorous contexts in which to show contemporary painting.

The surface of a cold wax painting is never passive. This post explores how I approach the building and reworking of a painted surface — the layering, the scraping back, the moments of decision — and what it means for a painting to feel alive rather than resolved.

I have been painting landscapes for over fifty years, working primarily in oil and cold wax. My practice is rooted in the Cambridgeshire landscape — its flatness, its particular quality of light, the way the horizon holds everything in a kind of suspension. This is a brief introduction to the work and the thinking behind it.

Imperfection, Patina and the Painted Surface The more I paint images of the forest, the more I see trees as a cipher — a kind of encoding, a representation of something else. This painting finally declared itself to me after a few weeks of alternately applying, layering, and removing pigment. 'Natural Theatre' 120 x 100 x 4 cm Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas Painting as Excavation This is painting as extrusion or excavation — not unlike a sculptor releasing a figure embedded in a m

'A Stolen View' — Landscape Painting and the Question of Access I always return to the forest as a subject for painting. It is a source of limitless fascination and inspiration. I create these forest paintings primarily from memory. I do have photographs taken at various locations, but I rarely use them to complete a painting. They may offer a starting point, a way of seeing, or a particular quality of light — but ultimately a painting has to work on its own terms. Effective

Oil and Cold ax painting of a forest 100 x 150 cm on canvas

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' 150 x 100 cm Oil on Canvas

'Reflections in the New Forest' — Artist Residency Work 'Reflections in the New Forest' is one of a group of paintings made during my residency in the New Forest. The title refers both to the literal reflections of trees and sky in the forest pools and streams, and to the more general quality of reflection — of looking back, of seeing the landscape in relation to memory and experience — that the residency encouraged. The Residency The New Forest residency was a period of sust