from the outset I planned this Dartmoor painting - it is on board, 110x110cm, with canvas and sackcloth added at random - to end up with a virtual three dimensional, sculptural piece. I enjoy the process of finding a painting despite the background and first colours used. Away from the obvious granite tors, most of the moor is fairly featureless - heather, bog grasses, peat cuts - and I wanted to try and catch this, with the suggestion of a simple horizon and the remains of an old track - maybe the Sandy Way or Abbots Way.
There are some shorthand symbols I use ; horizontal lines to suggest old signs of cultivation, vertical lines for stone rows, regular squares and circles to represent abandoned settlements.
