In these paintings, the making is part of the meaning. Each was built through a process of laying down, covering, scraping back and reworking, and the surface retains a record of that history. Loss, the passage of time and return are therefore things the paintings have undergone as well as things they describe.

In The Winter's Tale, ‘Perdita’ marks the play's shift from the controlled, suspicious world of Sicilia to the more open and transformative world of Bohemia. Two forms emerge from a pale, weathered field, a scumbled and abraded ground from which they seem to have been pulled rather than drawn on top. Figure and landscape were made through the same process, so that they cannot be completely separated. This ambiguity relates to Perdita's position in the play: princess and shepherdess, lost child and natural presence, an identity shaped by the world in which she has grown.

Simon Burton (b. 1973, Doncaster, UK) lives and works in London. He attained a BA at the University of Brighton (1992 – 1995) and an MA at the Royal College of Art (1995 – 1997). Burton has exhibited internationally including in Bulgaria, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Romania, S. Korea, USA and the UK. Burton’s paintings are held in many public and private collections in China, Europe, USA and the UK.