My new work has quite unexpectedly fused two themes I have explored in the past: landscape and terrorism. The images of New York on 9/11 were particularly shocking to me, given my long standing association with the city and knowledge of its districts, not least the streets around the World Trade Center. They spurred me to produce work on a 9/11 theme in 2002 - whilst in my next exhibition in 2004 I explored quieter, but still elegiac English themes.  The events of 7 July 2005 in London propelled themselves into my life - and my work, literally, as my studio is in Tavistock Square where the number 30 bus exploded. This happened right across from my window; I heard the blast and witnessed the scene and its aftermath. I have always loved the trees in London, especially the mature ones in the parks, squares and gardens. My studio windows overlook a mass of leafy green. After the bombings the whole of the square and surrounding streets became a cordoned-off zone with police guarding the edges. There was an eerie silence for 10 days: no cars, no people, no birds - just forensic teams doing their grim work. All the grass and trees were covered in bright blue tarpaulin sheets and little flags were placed where they had found human remains. This is the basis of the new paintings: a tranquil park at the height of summer devastated by senseless violence.  These are images of anger and anxiety but also reflection and silence. A recurring motif is the figure of Gandhi, whose statue stands in the middle of Tavistock Square - an ironic but irenic figure stranded in a shredded landscape of carnage and despair. Now one year on, the square is again full of sunbathers, oblivious to all the sadness and horror that I had seen from my studio. Thank you to Patti Smith for the inspiration and relevance of her album title 'Peace and Noise'. Richard Walker   August 2006