East Head, West Wittering, at the end of summer.

When I begin a painting I already know the moment, so the first marks can stay loose and abstract. Here it was the sky that mattered most. It is easy to get caught in detail, but to make a painting this size work you have to keep hanging it on the wall, stepping back, and seeing what is holding.

Distance comes from telling the story of the moment rather than describing everything in it. This one was about the light on East Head and the clouds. That lime green on the grass in the far distance was the last thing to go in.

I built it mainly through spraying and pouring, with weeks of acrylic laid on in layers. The clouds reflect well on the shoreline, and the marks, the colours and the scale all do what I wanted them to do. It is one of the most important paintings I have made.

Golden and Liquitex acrylics used.