The Secret was originally supposed to be a night scene, I had this strong desire to paint a dark sky and thousands of twinkling stars. I’d partly been inspired by an Allen Jack + Cottier sports hall that had been built at Berry: the external concrete walls had a number of small holes so at night, with the internal lights on, the building looked like part of the night sky. Everything I looked at seemed to reference starry nights, even turning on the television to watch playschool ended up with a children’s book reading about the moon waking up the stars. Anyway, when it came time to start the painting my personal life had taken a turn for the worse and I found the idea of working on a dark painting repellent. So The Secret became a scene from a day in early Spring, pale blue sky and the almost luminous greens of new growth.