I am preparing for an exhibition at The Chapel Gallery, Bromyard, Herefordshire over the weekend of Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10/11/12 October. The title comes from Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem Binsey Poplars of 1879, in which he laments the felling of a row of trees near Oxford. The poem despairs of the casual destruction of natural beauty. It is also about the especial meaning of certain landscapes to our individual minds.
Landscape for me has an autobiographical aspect, places seen over many years in different seasons and times in my life. My paintings and drawings in this exhibition are of two especial rural scenes: firstly my childhood landscape around St Catherine’s Point on the southernmost tip of the Isle of Wight. I was born at Knowles Farm, a few hundred yards from St Catherine’s lighthouse. It was my childhood world and is imbued with a lifetime of memories.
The second especial landscape is my home for the last 28 years in the Malvern Hills. Since 2003 we have owned 10 acres of land at the head of the Suckley Vally on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire borders. Here we have planted an orchard of old local varieties of apples and pears as well as many other native trees.
The changing tasks associated with the orchard provide subject matter as do the wonderful views along the western slopes of the Malverns.
8 October, 2025