These pieces (of which there are seven in the series) break from my normal practise in many ways.
My father’s family come from Norfolk; and during a recent family visit I filled time by paying a brief visit to the shingle beach at Cley-next-the-Sea. It was a grim day, and the environment seemed at first to be ultimately unstimulating. Soon, however, I was engaged by the colours and forms of pebbles, and moved from there to other items of beach debris. The idea emerged gradually of using this material to construct collages, but this struck me as weak and unfocussed.
After lunch I visited the parish church, to find an exhibition in preparation of art work which had to do in one way or another with the area. Talking to one of the artists, the possibility took shape in my mind of using old family photographs to provide focal points for each of the collages.
As images which at one level are very private in character, on this occasion I will take Graham Sutherland’s advice seriously! | 
