My inspiration for drawing and painting stems from personal experiences and observations, really a pictorial diary over the years. Many of my paintings are landscapes, the local views I know and love or places I visit. As I trained in Textile Design flowers are a wonderful source of inspiration, but I’ll draw or paint any subject that I find interesting.

The painting process is the development of a personal response to what I see and the excitement of painting derives from looking at something that is three dimensional – be it a landscape or anything else – and putting that image down on a two dimensional surface, to create an illusion of form and space. 

I find watercolour to be a demanding but highly satisfying medium to use as the transparency of the paint provides both exciting opportunities and potential problems to solve. The unpredictability of watercolour is what makes it so exciting and challenging and I never stop learning.

I gained my qualifications in Textile Design at Manchester Art School in the early seventies and worked as a designer for a company is Suffolk. I was born and brought up in North Wales and on moving to Snowdonia in the 80’s I was captivated by the dramatic scenery surrounding me. I began painting landscapes, working and exhibiting with a group of artists in Caernarfon. Watercolours seemed the perfect medium to capture the ever changing light, weather and seasons.

I now live in Ruthin in North East Wales where I taught in Adult Education for many years which I loved, and still do demonstrations and workshops for local art groups.

www.nialloydhughes.co.uk