Nunhead Cemetery's protected view of St. Paul's Cathedral. The view was partially responsible for selecting the hilltop location when the cemetery was founded in 1840. Eventually obstructed by dense foliage, a Heritage Fund grant was used in 2000 to clear the trees enough that visitors could again see St. Paul's from 4 miles away. The view is regularly pruned and officially protected by Southwark Council. In recent years, a new brick building appeared in front of St. Paul's, once again threatening the view, so a restriction was placed on the height of it.

Having lived locally for many years, I have often thought of painting this view. A constant fixture of my regular walks, it can look very different depending on the time of day or season. The long view made me think about Turner's watercolours with their pale and minimally depicted distance, but also of Constable's handling of foliage and clouds, willing them to create movements and punctuate his surface wherever they worked best for the whole (composition). I did many onsite sketches to internalise the various elements and then the painting was created from memory in the studio. It was started by layering warm and cool colours in a gridded pattern and then working with shape in overlapping layers. A particular aim was to create tonal movements with a reduced emphasis on outlines and hard borders, to expose a kind of exchange between the sky, the buildings, the foliage.