This painting was made during Storm Eunice, which the Met Office described as a once-in-a-lifetime event win which wind speeds were recorded at 122 mph.

I packed a skeleton kit, a few colours and rolls of canvas, then drove to High Cliff in North Cornwall, one of the most exposed points near where I grew up. The wind was so strong I couldn’t walk normally into it; I had to lean forward at a steep angle and fall into each step, while debris stung my face and skin. At the cliff top, I pegged raw canvas directly into the turf because stretched canvas would have become a sail. Even then, the surface billowed, tore and fought free, and some works were simply taken by the wind. The diluted blue paint dried at speed into delicate, feathery, lace-like patterns which I have never seen before or since, shaped by air, water and force.

Due to the extreme conditions, personal risk and the sheer expanse of light and air, this piece remains one of the most elemental and defining experiences of my career. I have kept this painting in my private collection since its creation because it is a literal record of that once-in-a-lifetime storm, this is the first time I have released it.