The text associated with ‘Becker country’ Oil, sand and collage on plywood 92 x 80 cms
when it was in The Gallery read as follows:

‘See blogs in ‘Insight’ before 2 August 2015 for the genesis and rationale of this painting which was exhibited as part of the the ‘Inspired by Becker’ exhibition at Wenhaston Church, Suffolk, over the weekend either side of 1 August, 2015.

Essentially the image is created around the idea of a map, a map of an imaginary landscape but one containing characteristics of the countryside around Wenhaston: the small rivers, like the R. Blyth in reality, create a gently rolling landscape with a marshy estuary fronting on to the sea (lower centre). Heading to the same area, the straight line top-bottom right of centre recalls the long lengths of Roman road which arrow across the centre and east of Suffolk; blotches nearby hint at Roman settlement, notably the central reddish area. The idea of red comes from the brick of the farm where Becker once lived. The very dark area (left centre) astride a modern road and close to a river suggests the area of a small town like Halesworth or large village like Wenhaston. The whole is overlaid – ‘skimmed’ would be a plasterer’s verb – by sand (inappropriately from the beach at Nice on the Mediterranean) suspended unevenly in a drying oil, representing the sand underneath the surface of ‘Becker’s country’ passim. I don’t know why I didn’t collect some locally on my visit to the area which gave me the idea of coating the work in sand.’