It took quite a while to reach Koenigsberg and I was worried that I might not find a hotel that was open. Probably due to the public holiday the streets were full of reelers. I picked the grandest looking hotel but inside it proved to be rather grim and the room was awful. I walked around the town for a while looking for something to eat but though all the bars were packed nothing looked inviting. I decided to try the hotel and ended up pushing my way to the counter of the Irish pub off the lobby and ordering a bottle of beer which I took to my room

I sat on a fallen tree by the shore and photographed the far side of the lake. The pizza was cold by now. The forest was scrubby and the road quite close by but I felt quite relaxed. I hadn't really found the landscapes that I wanted but I had enjoyed looking at things and the journey seemed well under way. It was getting cold so I set off

Now that I had a destination I felt more relaxed. I still hoped for a little country inn but decided to take the next thing that turned up even if it meant take away pizza. The place was run by two Turkish guys who seemed to be brothers. They weren't friendly but they were helpful. The building was large but very grim and I was the only customer so I took the Pizza and coke out to the car. I drove on keeping an eye out for a nice place beside a lake. The towns were separated by long stretches of pine forest and there was usually a lake every few miles but now it was just forest. By the time I found somewhere nice to stop it was nearly dark

I wasn't worried but I now checked each small town, somehow you wouldn't call them villages, for a restaurant and a hotel. There were no obvious town centres and the mini malls looked closed down. There were occasional take away pizza joints surrounded by gangs of teenagers but I kept driving. Although I was quite close to the Norwegian border the land had flattened out and I decided I might as well drive all the way down to the nearest large town, Koenigsberg

The land began to rise and dip more dramatically as I pushed North. The road followed a valley sparsely populated by tough looking villages. I was listening to Led Zeppelin now, as loud as the system would take. I started to look out for a hotel or at least a restaurant. I saw one hotel on the lake shore that looked nice, a series of large wooden buildings in it's own grounds on the lake shore. As I left the car I heard a distant brass band playing. I joined a stream of people approaching the main building. The people didn't enter the building but went around the back where there was a marquee, a barbecue and the band. I remembered someone saying that today was a national celebration. I went back round to the entrance but there was a note on the door that seemed to indicate that the hotel was closed. It was still quite early so I pushed on

The day was dragging on. It began to look as if I would not find anything better until I'd moved to a completely different part of the country. The rhythm of lake, village, forest was unchanging. This was certainly not wilderness. With the sunny weather and the lakes it was pretty enough but it was not what I was hoping for. Still I tried to make use of what was there. I pulled off onto a slip road that lead down to the lake. There was a playground and signs of camp fires on the beach. Two groups of teenagers were hanging out by the lake. One group, the wilder looking one was dominated by a flamboyant Mohicaned punk. I wandered closer to the other group and tried to look indifferent as I took some photos. I felt their eyes on me as I returned to the car but they were trying to look indifferent too

Once you have looked down from a plane you realize that our normal vantage point is much too low to get a clear idea of anything. If one can see anything at all most of the information, the mid ground, is stacked into a thin band. The foreground and the sky take up most of ones vision

Though it was still early summer the last few days had been hot and clear. The gallery faced a park but I had not been able to take much advantage of the heat while setting up the show in Stockholm. Now I rolled down the car windows and when I could I stopped and sat by the shore. There seemed to be a lake every few kilometres. That was usually where one found the small villages or groups of what looked like holiday homes strung along the edge of the lake. between the lakes were relentless pine forests. the land was gently rolling but not dramatic

The landscape paintings that I have made have all been trying to make a space behind the surface. A space that was clearly false but that you could see into, like a reflection or even a photograph. In a sense it doesn't matter what view you draw as long as it encourages the viewer to look into it, but I had come to Scandinavia to draw the dramatic landscapes that I'd imagined I would find. I have made a lot of paintings of roads, taking photos from the drivers seat. I wanted to avoid that here but to play safe I continued to photograph the road occasionally

I had bought three CD's with me, Dido's "Life for rent", Led Zeppelin "Live" and a relaxation CD called "Bali Dreams". I played them on loop throughout the day. Each one provided a different soundtrack to the passing landscape. I played Dido while getting out of Stockholm in an attempt to lighten my mood. I was now onto the relaxation CD. I have bought a lot of these using them as inspiration for soundtracks that I have commissioned. I play the music or sometimes natural sound effects through speakers hidden behind the paintings. The CD's often mix repetitive computer instrumentals with natural sounds, which is what happens if I exhibit more than one "sound painting"