I didn’t know how prophetic this piece was when I completed it a few weeks ago. The text is from that well-known litany which as a child I found at once baffling and soothing, the Shipping Forecast. ‘There are warnings of gales in Viking, Forth, Cromarty … North Utsire, South Utsire….’ A sort of incantation.

The piece had been gestating in my mind for a while alongside the increasing turbulence in the economy, the two closely linked in my mind. Here is a detail:

It must be right for the times: no sooner made than sold. It was done for the annual Open Exhibition at the Pierrepont Gallery, Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire. Now I wish I had taken better photos of it as I won’t see it again. I am slightly nervous about my next piece: will it turn out to be upbeat or pessimistic? My family say I’m a witch….