‘Romantic tryst at Seaton Delaval Hall circa 1959’, (2013) oil on linen, 76 x 102 cm

In the late 1950s I acquired a cheap old car and used it take trips into the Northumberland countryside from Newcastle upon Tyne. One day I invited a female art student (Pauline Armstrong) to a day out at Seaton Delaval Hall, Seaton Sluice, in the hope of furthering a romantic relationship. The stately home - 1718-29 - was designed in an English Baroque style by Sir John Vanbrugh and housed portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Godfrey Kneller and Benjamin West. However, the architecture and setting proved gloomy and oppressive; the building was partly ruined by fire in 1822 and the history of its aristocratic owners was an unsavoury one. The place was not conducive to seduction. I later discovered that the British romantic artist John Piper had produced an attractive painting of the Hall during the Second World War (London, Tate Gallery collection, 1941).