A return to an old friend, again! and again!! This is one of those paintings that seems to go on forever especially when I tell myself that I have captured the essence of the image, the statement and having done all that, it should and usually does fall into place. Not this time, so I am observing my mind, the mental process where I seem to be chasing something that eludes me. The other alternatives are taking to it with an axe or putting it away for yet another time.

The painting is a bit like a memoir where I am trying to depict the experience of a haunting but hostile landscape. I wanted to paint the experience of being in it not on it as a detached observer- melting in the heat, drowning in dust and sand as well as avoiding swarms of thirsty bees but at the same time watching as animals crept up to out camp looking for water.

Anyway I reached for tubes of colour and sloshed them onto the background, grabbed an oil painting stick and covered up the fiddly bits that had started to annoy me and felt much better. I wanted the paint to work it out for me. However after that small flurry of excitement it was time to stand back and consider the newish look and let it settle in my mind for a while……….