"He is very matter-of-fact about procedure and materials. To him painting is a very practical thing. The making is important. He brings the work to life by explaining how he manages to balance method and aesthetics. He tells of the ordinary everyday materials he uses, red oxide, polyfilla, stopping out varnish, grate blacking, and how he builds the work in layers, rubbing and scraping back, burnishing, scratching and scoring to reveal what has gone before. He rarely talks about the pictorial language which has become identifiably his and his alone, the pathways and ladders, the shapes that resemble rows of terraced houses, the scarring of the landscape, the triangle and the cross that is the piece of land at the end of the road where the war memorial stands. This is his private language. He hesitates from imposing his meaning on anyone else, preferring others to come to his work in their own way and on their terms".