During this period, drawing became an increasingly important way of developing ideas, often beginning with little more than a vague notion and allowing the image to take me somewhere unexpected. I found myself returning to subjects involving civic structures, institutional barriers, bureaucracy and the peculiar ways in which people are organised, controlled or excluded. Personal experiences of loss also began to find their way into the work, sometimes quite indirectly. The drawings gradually developed into a series of oil paintings populated by groups of figures, often huddled together, confined within buildings or confronted by structures and systems over which they seemed to have little control. Some appeared to be willing participants, while others were attempting to escape or resist.

These paintings formed the basis of Invasions and Excavations, my solo exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh in April 2017. Looking back, I can see many of the ideas that have continued to occupy me ever since, particularly the relationship between individuals, institutions and the built environments we create around ourselves.