Between 1970 and 1975 Doc Togden created this collection of oil paintings on canvas and hardboard called Speaking with Ravens. In August 2005, the artist came upon a broken box loosely held together with perished tape. Upon opening the box he discovered sixty-four dusty and damaged slides of his Art College oil paintings—images he had not seen for thirty years. The slides had been exposed to excessive heat, cold, and damp and had been moved from place to place over the years. They were in bad condition: the film emulsion had puckered in places and fungus had made some areas almost irreparable.

Doc Togden took what was salvageable, and worked many long hours in Photoshop trying to restore them. The original paintings cannot be located. (Doc Togden dispensed with much of his former life when he set out for the Himalayas to study Vajrayana Buddhism in the late 1970s. He discarded hundreds of poems, short stories, two novels, and what remained of his Art College illustration work.)

When Doc Togden traveled to the United States in the Fall of 2005 to teach Vajrayana Buddhism, he brought some of the recovered images with him. He was surprised by both the enthusiasm for the paintings and that he was asked to work on others as well. Upon returning home to Wales, he undertook the process of recovering all of the images.

The process was by no means simple. The current images of the paintings are not faithful reproductions as they received creative renovation, making partially new paintings of some. In some cases the strange 'red flare' of decomposing film stock has been left as part of the painting. Certain areas of fragmented texture have been amalgamated into images and various Photoshop effects have been employed to homogenize the images.

The inspiration for the paintings began during an assignment in a foundation course at Art College. He was asked to paint the model, combining two or more artistic styles. Doc Togden initially combined Renaissance, Pointillism, and Surrealism and so enjoyed the exercise he continued to explore the theme throughout his four years at college. He undertook an Illustration degree at Bristol Art School rather than a Fine Arts degree, as fine arts was dominated at that time by disdain for figurative work.

When he was unable to avail himself of the school models, a lady friend agreed to sit for him. She however, made her own request in return for sitting. Ravens had to be included in the paintings. This request appealed to the artist's enjoyment of Surrealism and inspired him to spend many days at Bristol Zoo drawing and photographing the birds. He so enjoyed the incorporation of ravens that he continued this theme. The other unusual aspect of his painting is that ginger hair color was attributed to every model. This was due to his fascination with the way this hair color could be made to resemble fire. From the age of ten, Doc Togden was familiar with the wrathful meditation deities of Vajrayana and so this theme carries resonances with Vajrayana imagery. He had no desire to produce cross-cultural images or to bring Vajrayana imagery into his work, but preferred to provide hints of this dimension through his paintings. 

Since the 1970s, the artist has been recognized as a Dzogchen master—an accomplished Lama (teacher) in the Vajrayana Tradition of what has come to be known as Tibetan Buddhism. It was at his students' insistence that these paintings be offered to the public.

The artist has asked that of the sixty-four paintings in existence, only sixty-four prints of each be made available.

Doc Togden—a descendent of the composer Schubert—was born in Hanover, Germany—of a German mother and English father. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to England where he was raised and educated. At an early age, Doc Togden was drawn to Tibetan Buddhism. For a seven-year period he studied Buddhism extensively in the Himalayas, accomplishing many lengthy solitary retreats. Along with his wife and spiritual consort Khandro Déchen, he has written several books on the subjects of Tantra and Dzogchen: Rainbow of Liberated Energy, Element Books, 1986; Journey Into Vastness, Element Books, 1991; Wearing the Body of Visions, Aro Books, 1995; Spectrum of Ecstasy, Aro Books, 1997 and Shambhala Publications, 2003; Roaring Silence, Shambhala Publications, 2002; E-mailing the Lamas From Afar, Aro Books, 2009 and Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Aro Books, 2009.

Doc Togden, Khandro Déchen and their two children live in Penarth, Wales.