In August 2006 I made four drawings in graphite and watercolour. Two were based on old photographs of Palladian houses in Venice and elsewhere in Italy. Figures are portrayed in relation to the houses and surrounding landscape. I imagined the architect, Palladio, dreaming of his houses far in the future, not knowing what would become of them or their inhabitants. I titled the drawings Palladio’s Dream I and II. The third drawing, Prayers Dreams, came from late nineteenth century photographs of Italian monks and nuns working and walking outside. And the fourth, The Poet and his Wife, was based on a photograph of the Welsh poet R.S.Thomas – whose work I greatly admire. Thomas was a priest, a keen bird watcher and, by all accounts, a rather irascible man. I wanted to evoke some of these attributes in the drawing.