‘Memory of Hubbard’s Hills’, (2012), oil on linen, 100 x 70 cm

Hubbard’s Hills is a public park and beauty spot near Louth in Lincolnshire. A very cold and shallow stream courses its way though a valley with densely wooded slopes. It was a favourite destination for family outings in the 1940s and 1950s. The sixteen mile journey from Grimsby to Louth was usually undertaken by bicycle. I recall paddling in the water, crossing the stream via stepping stones and risking injury by sliding and running down the steep slopes. At the entrance to the valley was a wooden store selling fizzy drinks, ice cream, sandwiches, etc. In summer it attracted clouds of hungry wasps. In the painting there are in fact two memories because the self-portrait is of myself in the 1970s remembering the 1950s. Superimposition - the portrait over the landscape - allowed the two memories, the two moments in time to be represented simultaneously. It is of course a pictorial device common in popular culture and media such as advertising and film.