Routes are created by choices, taking you to known spaces or surprises. Paintings take many paths. When I start to work on a new canvas, I have no idea where it will go, literally and figuratively. So I take any chance to travel and bring my work with me in whatever form possible, like these paintings I started in Ireland and brought to Italy.

I like the (long!) drive to Italy - it’s a great time for thinking. In any case, flying isn’t an option because I would only be able to bring a handful of paper pieces. The chance of working in oils in the heat is worth the few days on the road.

When you get near Genoa, the roads are perched high against the dramatic coastline, and you feel as if you are in a flying car. There are also countless tunnels which are a real inspiration. The patina created by car soot and the mountain corroding multiple paint layers illuminated by sketchy emergency lighting always makes me think of painters like Julian Schnabel, Anselm Kiefer and Antoni Tapies. It’s like driving through an exhibition.

I set up a studio as soon as I got to Italy, outdoors this time. I am trying to carve out a space between the sun, wind and mosquitoes. You suddenly get super disciplined about your working hours when you have to haggle for comfort with the Italian sun at midday and the mosquitoes getting ready to eat you in the early evening.

I began to think of water. Boats of snakes travelling on it, waterfalls, and dried-out rivers all enter these paintings. I work in oil paint for these first paintings because it dries so beautifully in this hot weather. Working in Italy is a brilliant opportunity to see old masters, look at shadows and hone my abstract vocabulary. Paintings like Italy.

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