onths before Covid hit, I was asked by Iris Weaver of the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden to select a piece of work from their collection. Iris suggested that I might make a work of my own to echo, reflect or celebrate the chosen piece. I painted a watercolour from the point of view of my studio. Making the painting proved to be a kind of turning point for me. I had spent most of that month and the previous year working on a large and delightfully arcane project with and for the author Philip Pullman. Simply making a painting of my house in the late afternoon light proved
