Paint

When I was about 15 or 16, somebody gave me a great big box of oil paints, left over from a shop closure. I didn't really appreciate oil painting at that age, seeing it as an old fashioned medium; the stuff of the dark, dour paintings in the local municipal galleries I frequented.
So I dragged these paints along with me for my whole life, through house moves and renovations, feeling vaguely guilty that I wasn't doing justice to such a generous gift, and promising myself that one day, I would get to grips with oil paint.
This opportunity came when I did a residency at Stiwdio Maelor, in Corris, on the edge of Snowdonia National Park. These paintings are influenced by the landscape of the Corris area, and the coast around Aberystwyth. Old mine and slate works have been reclaimed by nature, with trees growing out of derelict buildings and amazing views appearing through abandoned doorways, occasionally interspersed with the roar of a Tornado practicing low-level flying.