I want to paint the landscape untouched, Arcadian, timeless. The solitary aspect of my work is necessary for me to focus, but also to provide a place to retreat to.

I create paintings of places I have visited. I always listen to music when I am working on them, whether inside or outdoors. Music is my other passion, for me the arts are inextricably linked. Music helps me to tune in to that frequency where the language, the freedom to paint is at and helps me sustain the amount of work I do everyday. I find I can’t work as well without it. I studied in York and Manchester in the late eighties and then returned to my home county and the rural environment I love.

What is it like to paint all day, most days? It can sometimes be quite physically tiring as I am moving about all the time as I work on quite a few each day then I leave them to dry for a while. Occasionally I burnthem on the fire if I have had enough of a particular one, but I usually persevere. I like the struggle. Paintingis usually a very positive thing but I do not like to leave work at an unresolved stage. I worry about it if I do, willing it to look better when I turn on the light in the studio the next day. It is sometimes the struggle that makes a painting successful in the last half hour and I might have been working on it on and off for months. Equally, some pieces never work and never will, no matter what energy, time and effort I throw at it.

The way I measure whether a painting works is by putting it on the wall for a few weeks. It will either irritate or please me and if I want to keep it then it is usually ready to leave.

As I resolve the work I am also looking forwards to starting new paintings. Wherever I go I hold images of the places in my mind and I want to paint them. The northern landscape is inspiring and contrasting, constantly changing as the light alters. It is fragile and precious, and it is vital that we should preserve the diversity and the natural habitats for future generations, the birds, animals and ourselves.

Always restless and bored with routine, I am an observer in the same way as a writer or a poet, rather than a participant such as an actor or singer. This is how I express my feelings.