car, however, just before sunset you park up and venture out and deeply breathe in the fresh bucolic air. Then just as you are revelling in the majesty of the world the sun sets and something happens. The temperature drops slightly and the shadows, once sharp in daylight, dissipate and merge into the dusk and the dark. A palpable sense that you are transitioning into a different realm hits. This is the time when Buccas and Spriggans wake and you may not be as alone as you once thought. Soon it’ll be dark and you are in this ancient landscape, spirits gather around magic stones, there be monsters here… anyhoo, the painting (in general) is a journey piece but hidden within are images of Buccas, Spriggans and Hob Goblins (which is where the ‘Devil’ tongue comes in) ready to wake at dusk. They are always there, hidden in the id, but thankfully the sense of foreboding is diminished in the safe light of day… but it is now dark, you get back in your car, race home, put the fire on, brew a cuppa and sit down and are reassured that when the ancients built yer house they did so by making the walls a metre thick… should keep out the spectres! See this is what happens when you read Sven Berlin’s ‘The Dark Monarch’ or chat to Bob Osborne (@rebelnottaken on Instagram)… who said that a few artists came to St.Ives for the light but a lot of the artists came to experience the dark… really looking forward to his latest book ‘Zennor; Spirit of place’… top and slightly right is Carn Galva shrouded in fog… didn’t help that I’d just watched Stephen King’s ‘The Fog’ the other night either!