After a few years of continual painting, I was becoming frustrated with my tight, slavishly realistic watercolours. I wasn't painting the kind of paintings that I would be drawn to on gallery walls. So it was time to give it a break and take stock of what I really wanted to paint. I am much happier painting this way, I hope it shows in the finished work. "Looking downstream from the Pont-y-Pair, Betws-y-Coed."