Whilst looking at contemporary WW1 paintings by Paul Nash such as We Are Making a New World (1918), Spring in the Trenches, Ridge Wood (1917), Oppy Wood (1917), I began to wonder how the First World War battlefields appear today. I had seen Geoffrey Malins’ famous 1916 Battle of the Somme footage and was struck by the idea of revisiting these exact scenes through painting.

I travelled to France to locate three of the precise viewpoints captured in the original film. Standing where Malins once stood, I made drawn and painted sketches and took photographs, carefully noting the framing so that my images would echo the historic camera angles. Back in my studio, I created the paintings on canvases measuring 40" × 48"—a deliberate choice to match the proportions of 35mm film, preserving a sense of cinematic continuity.

It was only after the paintings were completed that I decided to overlay the original 1916 film stills onto my contemporary paintings. The results were extraordinary. Despite the century that separates them, the landscapes aligned with remarkable precision.

With this in mind, I decided to create these paintings as a tribute to the troops who took part in these battles. I have incorporated the cap badges of the regiments and embedded an actual poppy from the battlefield into each painting, making them a unique act of remembrance.

Lest we forget.