"The image, made from charcoal collected from the location,
depicts the aftermath of the wildfires that occured on Langdale Moor, North
Yorkshire in August of 2025. I was teaching a pair of weeklong masterclasss on
landscape painting at North Yorks Art School during August and indeed two of my
students had to evacuate their home in Ravenscar due to the intense smoke
during the first week.

Between the course I drove up to the moors along miles of
dirt tracks through the dense and dark plantations of single species pine.
Following my nose and not knowing the exact location of the fires I crested a
ridge and as I did so a helicopter swooped overhead and landed a little way
ahead at the emergency services encampment. I walked over and found the crew at
their canteen drinking strong tea looking relaxed. I found the fire chief
and explained what I do with charcoal and art and asked if it was possible to
approach the edge of the burnt area. Evidently a phlegmatic man his reply
was that if I walked the other side of the fire truck he probably wouldn't
notice. With this tacit permission I went ahead, collected the material with
which this drawing is made and took plenty of reference shot and video.

'First, the Forests' is thus a direct document , at once a
Piercian 'icon, index and symbol' of this British instance of the climate
crisis. (Charles Sanders Pierce).

The title refers to a quote from Giambattista Vico's The New
Science of 1777 : "This was the order of human institutions: first, the
forests, after that the huts, then the villages, next the cities, and finally
the academies.”

There are a few specific influences at play in this
piece;

Ivan Shishkin - who I frequently cite when teaching- for his
scope and specificity particularly his treatment of trees and forests.

Piranesi - particularly the 'Carceri' (Prisons) etchings -
many, perhaps all, of my landscape works depict places that are real places
that seem invented or unreal - the inverse of the Carceri which are invented
but have a trueness that we inherently know.

Josef Stoitzner - the formal yet evocative grace of his
prints is something that I always aim for.

Norman Ackroyd - who I regard as simply one of the greatest
British artists of the 20th/21st century: we often talk about the 'sense of
place' - Norman took us to the harsh, elementary and extreme periphery of these
British (and Irish) isles and showed us exactly where we are;sheltered
from the maelstrom ... until now".