Gwathea is in the mountains as you go over the border from Portugal into Northern Spain. I first went there many years ago with a Spanish friend.
It was a place of exceptional beauty; there are deep pools and wells of mountain water; it was remote and untouched.
I returned there recently with my wife and our first child. Time, unfortunately has not been kind to Gwathea. Tourists have discovered the place, and commercialisation has encroached there.
I painted this piece from a memory of what once was, and as an expression of solidarity with the place as it used to be. The shapes are very childlike; I painted the houses very simply.
It was only after I had finished it that I noticed how spooky this painting looks.