Soldiers in the dust PAGE 4 commentary included

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You have certainly done yourself proud. Wonderful work. I enlarged the painting on the screen and the detail is superb. A wonderful feeling of depth as the eye falls to each figure and eventually through the powdery dust to the Chinook. I looked up the spider and also watched a short video of Bear Grylls explaining the habits of this beautiful creature. However, I think I would also do - a - runner if confronted by one :) Being a hobby botanist, I like the plant you have added in the foreground. I have no idea what it is buy, its a nice addition.

should have read - but - it's a nice addition. Sorry.

Echinops spinosissimus apparently.......I looked it up on the net. This isn't actually the finished picture which I will post tomorrow from my computer at home( I'm on my iPad at the mo.) I don't have the finished image on this. thanks again for your interest mate ....DB

Highly proficient painting; and as a professional arachnophobe, I'm so glad you didn't include any camel spiders.

Sometimes the difficulty that an artist has with completing a truly compelling piece of art is that we just do not have the experience of the place we seek to portray. I have been lucky enough to have been to Afghanistan with the Regiment of Signals to get an idea of the conditions. ........ .I went in August when, at times, the temperatures reached about 50 C . I was not allowed outside 'Bastion' which is air conditioned in most places and you do not have to wear body armour. You are surprisingly comfortable most of the time; though I have never drunk so much water in my life..........It was a bit of a bland experience in some ways and apparently not that dangerous;although it was sobering to be told to don helmet and body armour for the flights; because the insurgents take pot shots at the planes coming in ( hmm)...... As a 'Civvie' it can be a bit distracting to see the vast quantities of fire arms...everyone carries them ; and it is the responsibility of the individual to look after their personal weapon. This is because of the incidence of 'green on blue' attacks of Afghan forces on ISAF personnel. In general the afghan forces are kept separate though.............. The trip out gave me the invaluable opportunity to understand the environment. I was at pains to introduce some of the local plant life which varies considerably depending on the incidence of irrigation. I wanted this picture to be arid looking and researched the local flora. I needed something in the foreground to give a sense of place, particularly for the blokes........As it happens, I was able to find most of the reference I needed from the net. Bastion itself was denuded almost entirely of any kind of plant, animal and insect life. There was a specific section designated to just the control of vermin.I wasn't sorry that there were no camel spiders (google camel spiders and check out the images) apparently they like the shower area because of the moisture and there was no way I wanted to be