I have now come back to this sketch, done way back in 1983, on several occasions as it epitomises for me the Pennines as I always delight in them in County Durham. This time I wanted to emphasise the textures of the wall across the field and at he same time pick up on the textures in the rough ground. I always remember the way that the buildings reached above the hillside against the evening light so I also wanted to draw attention to them and so treated them as the main subject of the painting and subordinated the stone wall.