The Rathfinny Series began with a trip to Tunisia and a fascination with traditional farming methods still used there.  Field after field of hand-planting and harvesting early crops reminded me of the timelessness of our relationship with growing our food, trusting the land to respond and celebrating the results.   Respect, hard work and gratitude for the land are universal ideas, affect us all indirectly every day and resonate in the cycle of planting and harvest celebration still celebrated in rural communities in England.   I returned home pondering a new series of work based around these ideas.   A few weeks later, as I drove over the Sussex Downs, I caught the moment that members of Rathfinny Estate were planting a large field of vines, the inspiration for these paintings.