In the Woods, September 2005
I was walking on my own through woodlands the other day and noticed that everyone else I saw was walking a dog.
Suddenly I felt rather conspicuous and out of place; as if it was unnatural for me to be there without a purpose.
At times during the walk when I found myself alone in the woods with nothing but the trickle of a stream and
the rustling of leaves for company, I wanted simply to stop and stare; to look around me and soak in the atmosphere.
In practice, I could only do this for about a minute at a time, as I expected at any moment to be 'discovered',
staring like a child or a madman, by another dog walker.
It struck me how odd it was that it felt unnatural to walk alone in a forest; that I felt hurried along by the presence
of other people. Mankind has certainly lost some of its connection to the rest of nature;
an instinctive link with the rest of the world.
The appeal of landscape paintings is clear; you can gaze upon the world to your heart's content,
without being taken for a lunatic. A landscape painting can allow you to recapture a moment when nothing exists
except you, the earth, the trees, and the sky.
This scene is taken from one such moment.