SNOW 

This has to be my all-time favourite subject - snow and the winter mountain landscape!

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Riding through the winter landscape is not just a physical joy for me – I try to see and take in, and then record, all the little indentations, undulations, peaks and troughs, or marks that man, beast or nature itself, leave behind. I relish the minimalism of the scenery – a track from the first snowboarder or skier on the mountain that morning, or the swirling lines of several coming down the white pristine powder in unison, different footprints left behind under cover of darkness by various mountain animals not in hibernation for the winter, prints that are puzzling to the mind with their meandering paths and that set you pondering as to what kind of animal would leave such tracks behind or why they would take the route they did only for the track to stop in the middle of the big, big white…

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Being fully immersed in the picture, each image has a true connection and intimacy for me. The space I am travelling through is at once ephemeral and ethereal: none of what is depicted at that moment will ever be exactly the same again. Snow as a material is transient, it is not here to last. It is light and airy, otherworldly even – as are the shapes that are haphazardly created by nature and that are as aesthetic to look at as any a sculpture in a prestigious art gallery, if not more so.

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Frequently, it is the human mark-making that is the icing on the cake in the landscape – all it needs is a couple of tracks winding down the mountain – serene lines – quickly and simply lain down as though nothing else mattered.