England has St Ives, Scotland has Kirkcudbright and Wales has Anglesey. It must be something in the air… or light that draws artists there or inspires their artistic sensibilities. Today, we’re featuring yet another Anglesey-based artist, Wilf Roberts (1941-2016).
His landscapes and cottages feel so Welsh – we really want to visit Anglesey some day soon.
Wilf, himself, explains his inspiration, subject matter and methods best of all:
I’m mainly inspired by Wales as it used to be. I don’t like modernism that much, so I tend to go back to my childhood and remember things as they were. The old cottages and farmhouses are quickly disappearing, but I make use of some of my old sketches to try to capture things as they used to be. I don’t really put anything in paintings that’s in any way modern except telegraph poles.
My painting is about the love and affinity I have with the island and in particular my own square mile at Mynydd Bodafon – for this is where I live and work, its paths are familiar to me and it’s where I’m most comfortable.
I make fairly quick sketches just to get the main outline of what I’m trying to do. All the painting is done back in the studio. I apply the paint with anything that comes to hand – mostly painting knives but also credit cards, my fingers, brushes, a pizza cutter, sticks – really anything I can think of that will get the desired effect.
I’ve often gone to a painting the morning after and scraped it all off simply because I’m not sure about it or don’t like it. It happens to about a third of what I do. You never achieve perfection, but you want to think you can get close to it. If a painting’s going well, somewhere towards the end, the whole thing comes together and makes some kind of sense. That’s when I feel, ‘Yes, I’ve achieved something’. WalesOnline
We brought a nice collection of art with us from Yorkshire, few of which seem to sit right in our new cottage. Hopefully, one day, we’ll own a Wilf Roberts piece (or two!) where it will be perfectly at home.
Additional image credits: