These paintings are a palimpsest of memory place and time. They are focused around the landscape of the south Cotswold escarpment; open common land scored with tracks, quarries and eroded pathways that evidence man’s historical and continuing use. This scarring reveals geological strata, lines and shadows – spectres of antiquity which occur according to light and season.

A recurring rectangular motif references Deadman’s Acre, a man made feature of curious origins.

One of my influences is the work of Julie Mehretu which has been described as combining among other things cartography and abstract painting, using drawn lines over coloured planes to describe urban “hybrids of location”.

Like Hamish Fulton and Richard Long my work is informed by walking in the landscape. My journey is delineated in loose gestural marks appropriated from abstract expressionism and calligraphic marks that have a many layered significance; describing not only the narrative of the physical journey but the intangible sounds, smells and ephemeral experiences of light and weather. In addition, these marks show the history of the construction of the image, the journey I make as an artist as I paint. The Chinese calligraphic style stems from researching Brice Marden’s Cold Mountain series based on the poetry of Han Shan. He said “I think of Chinese calligraphy as simply the way I see it not knowing the language”. I use calligraphy to describe the spirit of a place and the spirit of the act of painting.