Italy - Florence 1969-1970 and 1973
During the winter of 1969-70, with the help of a second Italian Government Scholarship my family and I made another visit to Florence. We were to stay at Rignalla in the hills overlooking the city and it was during this period that I started to question the validity of all that had gone on before with my art involvements - the courses at Cardiff and Newport, the Post Graduate year at Leeds and the studio work produced on our return home to the valleys. As a result I decided to use my time in Italy to explore alternative ways of expressing myself by returning to the simplicity of the worksheet format, using combinations of drawings, paint and writing to try to express what I was experiencing.
On reflection, I now realise that this body of work, together with what was produced on our return to Florence at Castello in 1973, was to provide the foundation for all that was to follow. Other essential elements in this process were the diaries that I started to keep plus the many letters sent home to the family in Wales.