I spent the 80s knitting sweaters that sometimes now turn up on eBay in the vintage section! Since then I’ve mainly made woodcuts and linocuts and experimented with etching and screenprinting.

A few years ago I felt the woodcuts held few further surprises for me, and that my work was getting stale. There was a period when I stopped work and then, surprisingly, I decided to try wood engraving, an art that was traditionally very small, tightly controlled and meticulously cut. This was an unusual choice for someone who admired Expressionist woodcuts with broad expressive marks.

In 2012 I applied to the Arts Council of Wales for a grant to develop the engravings, writing to them on the understanding the engravings weren’t going to be small and tightly controlled. I was awarded the grant over the twelve months leading up to July 2013 and the work is here to see. The engravings have developed over the last few years. In 2015 I was elected as a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. In 2017 I won the John Purcell Prize at the National Original Print Exhibition. Since then my work has featured in the Royal West of England Academy, Royal Cambrian Academy and Wales Contemporary exhibitions.

I mainly draw images of South Wales, with a passion! I’ve been in South Wales over 25 years now and wouldn’t wish to live anywhere else. When I’m drawing it’s not the Gower views that get me excited, but the Valleys and Port Talbot. I always draw from life and only occasionally get help from Google, as with the details of the buzzard in Evening at Emily's.

All my original prints are handprinted by me; they are not Giclée reproductions.

Video and Photos credit - rasamombeini.com Music - https://freetousemusic.com/ Track: Beloved by Kashia