I have been a member of the Woodland Trust for many years and so was very pleased that they planted a wood within half a mile of my house.
This mixed media painting was completed using sketches I made in July 2001. They had been lying about for ages until I came across them this year. Needless to say, due to the maturity of the wood, this view does not exist anymore!
Sir Roy Strong is so right about the English landscape. It is intrinsically wound up with English identity; no matter how urbanised we get, all of us who are English, or who may want to be, are attached to the open views of England, the hills, the mountains, the coasts and the fens.
I believe he is right. Scotland and Wales have their own measure of independence. We must discover our own identity and the process has begun, although England and Englishness never went away. She has been patient, waiting for us to open our eyes. The English rebirth has indeed begun in a profound, sustained, inward, but ultimately legitimate way. I hope to play my part in it.
And did those feet…?
I have put a new pair of paintings on ebay of Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire at a buy it now price. Would make a great present and make a good talking point on a home or office wall. Sutton on Sea? Yes, it’s a fabulous place and it’s in Lincolnshire, perhaps the most underrated county in England.
History is nothing but irony. Seventy years ago the few saved the many in England from the enemy without. Today the few expose the many in England to the enemy within.
Ciscography 