As a record of the former exhibition of this work in The Gallery, here is the note that then went with it:

’24/14 ‘The Bothy’ Collage on canvas 76 x 102 cms

This is a painting with a history. The canvas originally carried one of my earlier attempts at an impressionistic semi-figurative work. The figurative element was a small cottage or bothy, centre right, beside a long thin lake in a vague, mountain landscape suggested by impressions of steep, russet-coloured slopes and soaring heights. It was fun to paint, as I experimented with very liquid, and then dry, oils, but as an image it was soon boring and I put it away.

I later took it out to use it as the base for this collage, basically consisting of painted pieces of khadi paper stuck on to the canvas, overpainted and spray painted many times until what seemed a satisfactory effect was produced. Then I tore out a small ‘window’ to reveal half of ‘the bothy’ from the original, seven-year old painting, its roof balanced (I hope!) by the relatively large, unconformable block of reddish brown top left. I don’t think this painting ‘means’ anything, nor is it meant to, but it was fun to create over several months.’