Highways invite us to make journeys-and journeys lead to discoveries. The happy highways that have led me to make these paintings have mostly been quiet footpaths along river banks and seashore or stony tracks leading to mountain summits. These are highways where visual discoveries are frequently made and my paintings develop from the excitement aroused by these discoveries.

We make journeys every day which, to the observant, can provide life enhancing experiences, and in an analagous way the practising painter embarks on an artistic journey with each new picture. The imaginative artistic highways which open up for him are every bit as complex as the highways we journey along in practical life. The painter, aware of the history of his craft, has a choice of highways open to him. I have chosen the figurative route because, although abstract concepts may play a part in the evolving structure and design of a painting, the starting point for me is always something

observed-an effect of light or arrangement of shapes in a landscape which delights the eye.

The title of the exhibition comes from The Land of Lost Content a poem in Houseman's ' A Shropshire Lad'. The poem ends:

The happy highways where I went

and cannot come again.

I may be destined never again to wander along the happy highways that led to the places which inspired these paintings-but pleasant memories of them will inspire new interpretations and be the source of more paintings. I hope contemplation of my work will be a pleasant experience for you too.

Robert Kirk