As we progress through our life, we learn. We feel comfortable with the familiar. We think we know what is ‘right’.
This is true of how we view the world around us - we crave the familiar, we take pictures of it, we put up paintings on our walls, paintings we like.
NOW - we are having to take on the idea that all of that might not actually be as ‘right’ as we thought.

Most of us live in places where other people have lived for generations before us, and that means the areas where we grew up, those areas we love to look at, have been sculpted, shaped and styled by those previous generations.

What I didn’t know when I painted these trees, is that the man-made landscape around them has cut them off from the underground network of microfibres which, in a forest, would connect them to all the other trees around them.
I DID understand that the acorns they produce will not thrive, as they land in a field and will be eaten sooner or later.
But, together, these new realities mean that this image is doomed. Sooner or later, and probably sooner than would be the case if these trees were surrounded by others of their kind, these trees will fall down and there will be none to take their place.
I now understand that trees really should be grown, or allowed to grow, close to others like them.
Which means that this is a shout out for hedgerows!
BIG hedgerows, wide enough to let things grow, and regenerate.

I respect most farmers. They know a lot more about these things than I ever will, and they care about the landscapes that are in their custody. I would like to know how urbanites like me can help. We should be working together.
Every weekend, the hills in this painting are crowded with people, who mostly come from cities. 
We go there because of the scenery - it is impressive. But my point is, maybe we need to re-learn, reprogramme if you like, the way we think about what is ‘nice’ to look at.
Why are so many of our hills completely bare of anything except grass?
Might it not be better to encourage diversity? Trees have been harvested from these hills, first to feed industrial furnaces, then to warm the homes of our ancestors - no blame here, I’m sure if I had been around back then, I would have done exactly the same…… but knowing what we know now, we must take another look at our landscapes.

I become positively enthusiastic about the initiatives to restore landscape diversity, and this is why, despite the gloom of climate change, I continue to produce those cheerful (bucolic?) landscape paintings - to serve as a reminder to the viewer that the world we can still enjoy is worth our effort to ensure that future generations will be able to derive even greater pleasure.