Over 2.6 billion people in the world still live without access to adequate sanitation facilities. The issue is a pressing one as unhygienic sanitary practices lead to 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal disease every year, the main cause of malnutrition in children and the second leading cause of death in children under five years old. Diarrhoeal disease is both preventable and treatable with safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation and hygiene (especially handwashing with soap). The 36th WEDC Conference meets in Kenya this year to face up to these issues. Here is the conference image, digitally ‘painted’ based on photographs by Rebecca Scott, showing a typical rural African handwashing facility outside a ventilated latrine.

A drainpipe nestled in the corner of a stone courtyard isn’t a subject that I originally thought worthy of painting, but I was attracted to the lichen growing steadily over the surface of the wall. The metallic blue of the pipe seemed a fitting contrast to the living forms.

This is a further painting of a series drawn from a week’s visit to Connemara. We stayed in a remote village with panoramic views where the light changed at every turn. This is an attempt to capture the brief moment when the sunset turned the landscape orange until the colour dispersed with the fall of night.

Last Autumn I had a email out of the blue from an old school friend. “Are you still painting?” was the gist of the message. “I’d like to commission a landscape, like the ones of Ireland.”

John came round and in the end decided to commission a painting of Beacon Hill in the snow. It was a theme I had tried out before and although I was initially reluctant to paint the same scene twice, I noticed I could approach it from a different angle. This painting is the result of the commission. Thanks John!