The still life or nature d’mort ( a strange label as it seems such a rich alive subject in itself ). Having an orthodox art education Still life was a subject as important as  ‘The Landscape” or “The Portrait”. For me it seems to reach into abstraction more than the landscape, as the objects become disjointed from the real in their closeness. I have a collection of favourite objects that I have had for years, some glued together to preserve their character, which I guess points back to portraiture which is an area I’ve never explored in depth. I’m just not a people person. There is quite an art at arranging a subject, in order to not make it seem too contrived, the after math of a dinner party would be an ideal subject as it has arrived at its state by random process. So I set the objects up and then extricate them like a game of chess unitl I arrive at something that feels right. It is like jumping to the middle of something and then making some visual sense out of it. And inanimate objects become something, the patina almost a voice. If anything if there has to be a story of these arrangements then it is their pointers towards abstraction.