Rhiannon Rees’ site-responsive practice merges her interest in sustainable painting practices with minimalist aesthetic concepts to connect to the land of Wales. Foraging for pigments and creating Welsh paints is key to Rhiannon’s practice, it allows her to reconnect with her ancestral land; Once, one side of her family mined the Welsh land, and the other farmed the land of Wales. Researching these ancestral industries have created a question that interweaves Rhiannon’s projects: What are the material legacies of Wales?

Through moving into sustainable practices Rhiannon has developed her concept of Gentle Painting. It is an idea of gently learning and working with the land and also with herself and studio practice.