The land and my environment has always fascinated me, moments in time for no reason stick in my memory. I love nothing more than to explore the places I visit and take memory trips back to places where I have lived. I often find that some of my past experiences resurface when wondering what next to paint and it is then that these smaller paintings emerge, some of which become studies for larger pieces. This one was painted from imagination and memory of many happy years spent living in Southwold, Suffolk. This simplified landscape is of Gun Hill in Southwold. There are six 18-pounder cannons that sit on this hill, commemorating the Battle of Sole Bay (1672). I have been told that these cannons were captured by the English from Culloden and given to the town of Southwold by the Duke of Cumberland (known as the Butcher because of the attrocities committed after the battle of Culloden). My small painting in some ways brings the cannons back to Scotland. Perhaps I ought to to paint a larger painting, more symbolic of bringing the cannons back to Scotland.