For many years I have felt a deep admiration for early Italian Renaissance altarpieces by such artists as Duccio and Giovanni Bellini. One of my ambitions has been to create the modern equivalent of an altarpiece, but without any overtly religious imagery – something which could be an object of contemplation, or perhaps an aid to meditation – hence the title Mantra. Over the years the composition of these paintings has resolved itself into a series of horizontal layers. Later works in this series have the title Significant Vibration or Strata, the latter because for me they evoke geological processes.