Since 1982 I have been living and working in Blencarn, a hamlet in the Eden Valley at the foot of Cross Fell, the highest point on the Pennines. I walk through the surrounding landscape each day and I know it intimately.

This body of paintings is a response to this wonderful landscape and to one of my walks in particular. My return walk to the gate takes me about 50 minutes. In less than an hour I can be back at work. It's a little over three miles and takes me from the studio through the most glorious undulating countryside of woodland and fields of grazing sheep up to a gate above the village of Kirkland. At the gate I usually turn back to the studio but beyond the gate the landscape opens out and it becomes much wilder and, for me, it's where wilderness begins. (see the paintings 'To the Limekiln' and 'Wildboar Nook')

Looking down to the left as I'm approaching the gate there is a winding beck, some dead ash trees, gorse bushes and an array of gnarled and beautiful hawthorns each clinging to the bank. I love it here and this small area, about three hundred metres in length, has become the heart of my work for nearly two years.

My paintings are put together in the studio, away from the subject. Each is reflected on over time and is built-up layer upon layer. We know things only by their differences and, as much as I can, I want to introduce opposing elements . . . to play-off one thing against another. I am not conscious of having a style. In these paintings, more than in any others I have made, I am trying to create a broader image and textures which can be interrupted with quiet and delicate passages.