The result is a remarkably eclectic body of work. “But each one is the same picture,” he continues. “The theme is secondary, whether the image is a still life or a landscape, whether it’s abstract or figurative, the aim is for each picture to be better than the last. The theme of one painting might be triggered by something that I learnt in the last.”

In 2004 Walker exhibited a show called ‘The Magician’s House’ in the Star Gallery. This follow up exhibition is called ‘The Magician’s House 2’. “I equate my journey in life to wandering through an endless series of rooms, and experiencing, as we all do, an endless series of landscapes, vistas and human situations, and trying to record some of it,” he says. “Improvisation is not creating out of thin air, but out of your experience, and state of being. You are never fully in control of it at any time.”

Is Tom Walker, I wonder, the Magician? “No, no,” he says. “The Magician is whoever’s house I am exploring. The Magician remains unknowable. We try to make sense of what we come across in life but there are many mysteries. Sometimes, though, if everything is focussed into one offering, be it a painting or a piece of music, something beyond ourselves can be discerned. AG