he next began to add a background or context for his figures. starting on his right-hand side looking at the paper, he drew a horizon of trees and hills in silhouette. He clearly understood the notion of vanishing point which is displayed in his drawing of lines diminishing from the foreground into the distance which is plainly a road or path. Peter also understands the relational sizes between objects in pictorial terms,in that some objects appear bigger because they are nearer to the viewer. He is also very sensitive to changes in texture and how these can create space in that thing that are nearer seem more textured and therefore more solid. I was also struck by the strong sense of composition he displayed, knowing for example, when to add a cloud to balance the picture. In many ways this drawing he had made seemed like that of a trained landscape painter whit a knowledge of the tricks needed to create a large sense of space felt when viewing a landscape. At first I wondered whether he had been deliberately taught any of these. There were several particular features in these drawings which are worth noting.
First the general impression his landscapes create are that they are viewed from quite high up (plate 8). Somewhat similar to the viewpoints gained in the hilly countryside in which he lives and indeed through which he often journeys on bus rides with his 'nanny'. there are also differential aspects in the way he represents features in these landscapes. The horizons are drawn in true perspective as are any buildings included in the picture. these are combined whit roads and rivers being drawn as plans, he blends these approaches very effectively and there is no jarring visual discontinuity in the drawings (plate 9).
In a subsequent session I asked him to make a drawing of Oxford which I knew was a favourite subject. In this particular drawing he started with two lines which narrowed towards a vanishing point. He then drew two lines bisecting the previous two to from a crossroads. This seemed to give him the basic structure for the 'scene'. Buildings were added in perspective along these roads. Peter named the most significant buildings which were well-known aspects of the Oxford skyline. He still used an elevated viewpoint but he was able to capture the quality of streets receding into the distance whit the use of the vanishing point. This made me feel he had a clear understanding of the way perspective works over different kinds of terrain; how it is less and almost imperceptible in rolling countryside and how striking it is in the harsh geometric pattern of a townscape.
In another drawing he represented Oxford as a silhouette on the horizon as if seen on a hill some 30 or 40 miles away. He drew the M40 and was very precise about the number of bridges over the motorway and although I cannot say whether he was accurate, there was no doubt that he was very certain. Next he drew a patchwork of fields, which was one of the most common features of his drawings and he described these as 'hills'. He then said 'do it like this because it's going down through the hedges', while adding more and more fields until the impression of an agricultural landscape was complete.