I am a local artist and largely self-taught; I can’t remember a time when I didn’t draw and paint. I had some success as a landscape and portrait artist in the 1970’s and decided to retrain as an Art Teacher. After completing my degree, thanks to the vagaries of the education system, I spent the next 20-odd years teaching English and Drama. My time at college also awoke a deep interest in photography [which developed into a photography business as a parallel career] as well as a passion for theatre. For many years I rarely picked up a brush except when designing or painting sets for Grove Park or other theatres, although I never stopped drawing and continued to provide graphics for advertising and publicity. Early retirement from teaching, plus a growing disillusionment with professional digital photography gave me more spare time and this saw a gradual re-awakening of my desire to paint. I have experimented with, and continue to use, a variety of media from coloured pencil to oil, although my preferred medium at the moment is acrylic paint. The paint handles in a similar way to oil but the quick drying time makes it more immediate. I also enjoy the immediacy of pastel. I would love to be a better pure watercolourist but fear that I’m neither organised nor brave enough not to fiddle with washes; I tend to‘cheat’ by using a mixed media technique where pastel is applied over the original washes. This exhibition consists entirely of my more recent work, and mainly of landscapes. After several forays into the world of abstraction I have returned to figurative work. In my landscape work these days I try to capture the mood of places I know well, which is why there are so many pictures of the Erddig estate, where I walk my dogs several times a week, Snowdonia and the Llyn Peninsula, favourite weekend and holiday destinations. There are also a few pictures of the Charente-Maritime region of France, an area that has recently captured my heart. Although I have always loved working ’en plein air’, my usual working practice these days is to walk a region making sketches, notes and taking photographs in order to familiarise myself with the area. I then work in the studio from sketches and photographs in an attempt to recreate, not an exact topographical representation, but rather an impression of the atmosphere or mood of a particular place at a certain time. I am currently a member of the Wrexham Art Group, with whom I regularly exhibit. I have also shown work with the North Wales Federation and at other solo and joint exhibitions. I have been lucky enough to have had work acquired by private and corporate collections, both in this country and on the Continent. I also paint people and pets to commission. I hope you enjoy the show. All works are available for sale If you have any queries about exhibits or commissions please call me on 07813 845989