The artist writes of lots 327 and 329-330: 'All the works were made in my first studio at Ballycraigy, near Templepatrick in Co. Antrim, it was an old farm cottage that pigs were kept in for years, when the pigs moved out in 1987, I moved in and fixed the building up (I also made Seamus Heaney's Family Portrait in the same studio). The landscape near the cottage was surrounded by animals, cows, pigs and near by race horses which I used to see ride out early each morning. The place had a big impact on me and indeed my subject matter. The Night Dog [lot 330) was the next door farmer's dog, it always barked at night when I was working. The works Out of Kells [lot 329] and Hen-Bird Kells relate to a spiritual awakening which took place in the village of Kells, Co. Antrim in 1859; people in the area still spoke of it with a great sense of inward mystery, the stories helped the works begin' (private correspondence, March 2009).