Lancashire based artist Rob Miller explains his love affair with the North. The North West of England and its subtle  light is an amazing place for a landscape artist. The close proximity of the sea, the quickly changing weather and the moisture in the air, along with the variety of fell, moor, valley, wood and river settings, all  give endless variety in the shortest of sketching trips.  I have explored these wooded valleys, rivers and moorland areas of the  North West since my childhood. It was not until 1990 that I started to revisit and to find new places for the sole purpose of painting. After each day out I would return with sketch books full of images and inspiration. Over the years certain places and themes have manifest themselves into more than a view of the land. Inspired by the changing light from the high moors to the sea and a developing sense of human history and struggle I have gradually built up a relationship that resonates with something that I have begun to call ‘a sense of place’ that is physical and spiritual.