"I LOVE him, I miss him. I miss him so much it hurts," said the wife of missing Chiddingfold artist Paul Lake at a meeting on Tuesday. Mrs Lake was renewing her appeal for her husband, who went missing just over four weeks ago, to get in touch. According to his wife Lorna, Mr Lake loved to walk, and would sometimes walk up to four or five hours a week, often around the Guildford and Godalming area. When he left his Chiddingfold house in the early hours of December 20 to go for a walk, it was not completely out of character for the missing artist. But this time, Lorna's husband left the house without his mobile phone and with no money. Mrs Lake told The Herald that she and her husband had been talking until about 4 am on the morning of his disappearance. "I went to sleep," she said. "He was depressed, but he had said he would be there when I woke up. When I did wake up I realised he was gone. Usually if he went out and I was asleep, he would leave a cup of tea beside me. "I sent him a text and I heard it arrive in the next room. That's when I knew he had not taken his phone; he always took his phone, as he liked to touch base with me. I was already alarmed, and went up to the Post Office to see if he had been up there to get some money. Then I came back and looked through the drawer in which we keep official papers, and knew that he did not have any money on him. It was just not looking right." Mrs Lake said that she had sat up with her husband the previous two nights as he could not sleep, although he was taking sleeping tablets. The couple had arranged an appointment for Mr Lake to undergo an emergency assessment with a psychiatric team on the afternoon of December 20. But Mr Lake went missing before he could keep the appointment. Mrs Lake said she had struggled in the days since her husband disappeared. "Some days are worse than others," she said. "I have to get up because of Pip." Pip is the dog her husband gave to her as a 50th birthday present. Mr and Mrs Lake first met 11 years ago, when Mrs Lake was a nurse at one of the hospitals where Paul was a patient. They have been married for six years. Mrs Lake said: "Paul has suffered with depression on and off since the age of 15. For 10 years until the age of 31, he was free of it. This time, though, he has agitated depression, which is the severest. "Paul finds it difficult to deal with highly charged situations. He found Christmas difficult - always. We were going to have a Christmas-free zone. But I was used to his moods and he felt comfortable with me because of that. "But he absolutely loves nature. He would take me to look at things like badger sets to see the badgers emerging. He also likes music and dancing, and writes really lovely poetry. He was reckoned to be very talented at school, and his work Harvest Time, which he did when he was about 10 or 11, was featured in a local paper." It was while Mr Lake was coming through what Lorna describes as a "deep, deep depression" four years ago that he met Prince Charles at the mental health charity Sane's opening day at its International Research Centre in Oxford, where Paul's painting, Barmy Days, is on permanent display. "Paul was getting better, but he was still fragile," Mrs Lake said. "His consultant agreed that he could come out the day before, so meeting Prince Charles was very therapeutic. Paul and I positioned ourselves by Barmy Days and Prince Charles came along and shook hands with both of us." The same painting has also been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London and in the annual BP National Portrait Competition. Since his disappearance, Mrs Lake says, she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received. "Shopkeepers and total strangers," she said. "When they realise it's my husband they present telephone numbers to me in case I need anything. If I wasn't disabled because of my back injury I would have joined in the searches as well. Because of Paul's nature, when people meet him, they like him." Mr Lake, who is 47, was born and brought up in the Guildford area and is described as white, around six feet tall, of slender build, with dark brown curly hair, distinctive sideburns and brown eyes. Since Mr Lake's disappearance, air and foot searches have been carried out around Guildford, Godalming and Chiddingfold by police. Officers would like to trace anyone who was waiting at the bus stop in Chiddingfold on the morning of December 19 or 20 at around 10-30 am. The bus stop is at the junction of Petworth Road and Coxcombe Lane, by the pond. Bus passengers would have been waiting for the Hindhead bus leading to Guildford. Last week the Missing Persons Bureau set up a poster campaign in areas Mr Lake was known to visit, such as Guildford and Godalming. Anyone with information is asked to contact Surrey Police on 0845 125 222. Callers who wish to remain anonymous should call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111