The Humber Estuary
I paint places where I have a connection either personal or through ideas and thoughts that interest me. The Humber Estuary is a major source of inspiration and I use the space it provides to explore these thoughts and ideas, regularly coming back to the same viewpoint. The distant horizon across the Estuary allows the imagination to find other places including contemporary and classical references.
Why the Humber? It is the nearest significant expanse of sea and light to Sheffield. It has an intriguing history, particularly about the defence of these lands: collapsing gun emplacements, monolithic pill boxes, forts in the estuary and lines of tank traps disappearing into the sea. It mixes raw beauty with industrial activity from oystercatchers on the mud flats to ore carriers and wind farms. It is also a place with personal family history and recollection, particularly a maritime one.
“The way we look at the landscape determines how we understand and internalise it.”