The attraction of rocks and stone.

It's curious why stones and rocks have such a fascination for me. I grew up in a Monmouthshire village far from the coast surrounded by green fields and undulating hills. Later as a student in Cardiff I may have remembered the beach at Ogmore or walks at Southerndown and maybe my interest began then. It's more likely that a painting by Brenda Chamberlain in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff sparked something in me. A large painting of a stone in the centre of the canvas  - I haven't been able to track it down so I rely on my memory. The details of the painting are not important. The impact it had on me is something I do remember.

I live near the coast now and my home in France over the past 17 years has been a 12th Century stone house in a medieval village where all the buildings are made of limestone. Plenty of inspiration there but a trip this summer around Ramsey Island in Pembrokeshire was a bonus I hadn't expected. I have images stored away that I'm desperate to get onto canvas.