It is these sparks of serendipity, these quantum leaps of thought that the artist seeks to utilise creatively. Like a Hadron Collider, artists crash thoughts together in the hope that this will produce new elements. I use this practice in the inspiration process to discover associations connecting thought-fragments, utilising memory to leap frog from subject to subject.

Some of the memories employed in my work relate to cities and places I have visited which produce interesting combinations of art architecture and music. Sometime ago, I started a series of paintings called ‘MEMORIES OF…’ which recorded the most stunning impressions of places I had visited whilst attending Parkwest Events. These include Venice, Florence, St Petersburg and American cities such as New York and Louisville.

It recently occurred to me, whilst travelling in the USA, to extend the ‘Memories’ series to individual States as it would probably take a long time to get to all America’s major cities.

I began this project for a Parkwest tour that took in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas, and I took these States as my first subjects. It is not possible to put in all the characteristics of a State in the paintings so my choice of images is dictated by individual and artistic reasons. If I missed anything of significance I have invited collectors to put their own favourite landmark into the paintings. The response in the first three States was extremely positive and all the paintings were collected.

Each painting has a background motif incorporating the Stars and Stripes, a romantic couple as a centrepiece, and various consistent emblems; the State flag, a map and the State flower in the hand of the girl. Other insets include works of art, historical figures, characteristic landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and a reference to a musician or the music of the State.