In early 2019 I commissioned a bespoke set of contour data from Harvey Maps, for use in developing artworks for my exhibition at Brantwood in November 2019, "Above and Below". One of the ideas I had in mind was to use a 3D printer to make a relief map that I could then make a painting of as a still-life object.
It turned out that the complexity of the contour detail was beyond the capabilities of the printer. However, the contours in themselves had a sculptural quality that I felt somehow captured the nature of the land, conveying truth about it in quite a different way from a conventional landscape view. I found myself comparing it to other natural surfaces at different scales, from fingerprints to tide-washed sand to limestone pavements to satellite images.