Flowers by Gillian Horsfield, Landscapes by Anthony M Skates


had never shown her paintings until last August, when she entered two watercolours in the Monmouthshire Show. Success awaited her; both won their class and she was


awarded the Ken Brown Challenge cup. Spurred on by this, she joined Made in Monmouthshire, an initiative set up by the rural development programme, adventa, and so took part in her first exhibition during the Monmouth Women’s Festival in March. She has gone on to develop her own website and is delighted that this has drawn her to the attention of the Orchid Festival of Wales, whose organisers have asked her to be a guest artist at their event at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales over the weekend of September 3 to 4. Closer to home, from June 25 to July 10 her work is on


show at The Mariana Art Gallery in St Briavels and she is taking part in Forest and Valley Open Studios in July.


Lure of location


For artist Anthony M Skates, from Llandogo, it’s his environment – the stunning Wye Valley, the historic town of Monmouth and the wooded glades of the Forest of Dean – which gives him inspiration: “The area within 15 miles of my home pretty much provides everything I need as it offers up an incredibly diverse and beautiful landscape


Gillian Horsfield


which is constantly changing as the seasons progress,” he says. Most of his work is very specific to location: “If I’m


exhibiting in a place I like at least some of my work to be linked to where the exhibition is, so, for example, my next exhibition at the Old Station, Tintern (June 27 to July 4) will focus almost entirely on site itself and its relationship to the River Wye.” Anthony has lived in the Wye Valley for the past four


years, although he hails from the little town of Porth in the Rhondda Valley. On leaving school he did a foundation course in Art


but then diverted his efforts to obtain a degree in religious studies and work as a careers adviser. He returned to art in around 1999 after realising how


much he was missing the creative process. He undertook two painting courses with the Open


College of the Arts to refresh his skills and discipline himself to work in subjects and media that he would not otherwise


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