The idea for these paintings has been swimming or rather punting around my mind for months. I spent endless hours sketching over bridges. There is something quite unique when the sunshines in Cambridge, the rivers swell with wondrously sunburnt, squawking punters. Separated by the width of a quant pole, each punt becomes a private delicious play to be watched from above. Rush hour on the river all Summer long.

King’s Parade at lunch-time presents the very best of people watching. Tourists resting hot swollen feet or school children with packed lunches and nametags like Bob and Doug’s, there are so many stories to watch.
The central painting, your painting, was inspired by four friends. Their background (one of my own fiction) is of their annual reunion. They sit, as they have every year at the same time, at the same spot. Having spent a life time in uniforms of one sort and another, they still wear a uniform identifying their tribe. Blues made of linen, straw Panamas and mostly sensible footwear. They eat fudge as they wait for their wives. There is something altogether delicious about the legs of men of a certain age. This is a painting about the comfort that comes with lifelong friendships.

Mucking about in the sunshine. This series focussed on family dynamics at the Orchard Tearooms.