17 I began discussing the concept of a series about sacred places in the spring of 2009. In my naïveté, at that time I imagined an exhibition encompassing some of the world’s most sacred natural phenomena: not cathedrals, temples, or mosques but rocks, trees, rivers, and mountains. Although the idea met with enthusiasm, once I had thought more deeply, I realised its complete impracticality. It would be much more than a lifetime’s work, especially for an artist already in his sixties. It would also involve visiting many of the world’s most popular destina- tions: Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Buddha’s sacred tree, the Ganges River, Mount Fuji. For the past thirty years my work has been about traveling quietly into wild places and responding directly to what I find there. To travel to Uluru, for example, and find it swarming with partying tourists was never going to suit the kind of respectful work I wanted to make. Sacred Places: Watercolour Diaries from the American Southwest I was transported by the extraordinary beauty of the landscape and knew that I was in the right place at the right time. Chaco Canyon, Looking Southwest from the South Mesa Trail • Plate 27 (detail) So I had to think again. What if I were to concentrate on one small area? Most areas of the globe that have not been completely overwhelmed by commerce seem to retain at least a residual memory of places considered sacred. What I needed was a place with varied cultures and spectacular landscapes. The American Southwest—in particular areas of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and southern Colorado— seemed rich in possibility. I started with a scouting trip in a borrowed truck in October 2009. On that first foray I found, if not inspiration, then the hint of the possibility of it. It was enough, at least, to draw me back in spring 2010, when I started to make my first paintings—of the New Age vortexes in Sedona, the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, Chaco Canyon, Shiprock, and Mesa Verde. It was not always straightforward. Native Americans were, understandably, sometimes suspi- cious of my motives. As my work is respectful of other people’s values, I did not feel the need to barge in on
