'Embarkation Point' — Battersea Art Fair, October 2021

This 60 x 60 cm mixed media abstract painting was shown at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair in October 2021. It is based on the Fenland landscape and the perpetual negotiation between land and sea that defines this part of Cambridgeshire.

For me, the land of the Cambridgeshire Fens is a will o' the wisp — a mirage, existing only with the acquiescence of the sea. Pumping stations, sluices and man-made channels hold back but merely postpone the inevitable. This cycle of recovery and reclamation is a temporary reprieve as the land level continues to sink and dykes are built ever higher to protect from flooding.

The fragile balance between land and sea teeters on the brink as tidal waters ebb and flow with increasing energy. We will reach an embarkation point — probably sooner than we expect.