Eric: retired farmer & our neighbour.

Eric was a mine of information about the weather, the stars, the movements of the birds and the changing seasons. He had spent an entire life working the harsh land of the North Yorkshire Coast.

For Eric, every object had a history or a potential use, and so over the years he had erected a series of sheds in which to store these trophies. I was privileged to access these private spaces and to make paintings from them.

Inside the sheds, the light struggled through cobweb-strewn windows and occasionally poured like searchlights through multiple holes in multiple roofs. I was intrigued by the strange rhythms and relationships among the cluttered contents.

Eric died in February 2003, and the sheds were slowly emptied.