Thankyou for your comments, Cynthia. I am flattered that you are using my work for reference. Mood is very important to me; in fact if there is very little in the way of meaning or concept in a piece then if it at least has the mood I want then the piece is successful. I live in a landscape which I equate to living in a collage; I have actually just made the same comments in my notebook (today we have had spring sunshine and long, deep shadows in the woods but there is icy white snow on the mountains reflected in the lakes). I am working on a new series of paintings, none of which will be finished for some time but when they become so, I will be showing them on Open Museum.

I really look forward to seeing your new pieces.

Hello Mark. Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I feel as though I am emerging from hibernation this winter. Thankyou for the comments. I didn’t realise that I had had so many objects of the week.

Thanks Grady. As I just said to Marc, this winter has felt like hibernation. Actually, a lot of recent activity has been networking, to use that dreadful phrase and I’ve been pretty neglectful of other contacts. New work to come, to be seen on Open Museum. Watch this space!

I think the colour comment was meant as a ‘damning by feint praise’ thing, as in the best thing that could be said was that it was colourful. I have to say that when it was exhibited there was 250 watts of halogen light blasting on it from a distance of no more than four feet (a regular fault with galleries). It was a shock and it ruined the painting for me. Bright colours per se don’t pose a problem for me. Even in the winter, on a day of bright blue sky, the landscape can often be almost described as gaudy and I feel I should acknowledge this when I have the opportunity. No, what the real problem was with the painting was that it was overly busy, unfocussed. As I said there are many parts I wish I could have cut out and kept, like the broad sycamore in the middle and the fall in the sunshine but the painting needed more than that. The dark evening version wasn’t because I didn’t like the colour as such; I just saw a dark version in my mind’s eye and it attracted me, just as all paintings set in twilight do.

Thankyou very much Scott. Sometimes, and actually more frequently (I hope this isn’t a sign of age) I wish to try not to say too much. I think, in this painting, I have succeeded, after so many years of aiming to push a point.

Which image did you use?

Martin, I think you’ve ably succeeded in creating that space of gentle solitude we all seek. This is a magnificent painting.

Martin, I used your image again today in a different class (same basic lecture). The image is The Golden Age, newer version.