Carole Jury

Carole lives in Aberporth, where she moved in 1969 from London. She is largely self-taught, apart from a few part-time courses, and her solo exhibitions include the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, the Library Gallery Haverfordwest and the Dockside Gallery Milford Haven. She has also shown in many selected and group shows in Wales and beyond.

And while most artists who move to the west Wales coast do so because they are attracted by the light and the landscape, Carole's work has taken a completely different direction.

"I did start by painting seascapes, but I soon moved on," she said. "Perhaps I felt there was too much competition."

Nowadays she concentrates mainly on figurative work cheery, larger than life characters who seem wholly unembarrassed at being captured in unguarded and often undignified moments.

"When painting these rather peculiar people I don't like to work directly from models," said Carole. "I find it cramps my style and takes away the spontaneity. I prefer to be completely free to follow my own imagination.

"I paint exclusively in oils and all my paintings are made in the studio working from a combination of sketches, photographs, memory and occasionally small oil studies. I also find a full length mirror rather useful!

"I consider myself a late developer and feel I'm just finding the way I want to go," she added.

Carole is always pleased when people are amused by her work. "I like it when people smile at my paintings - they amuse me anyway," she said.

When not working on these characters Carole enjoys doing small, precise still-life paintings. "It provides me with a contrast, and the discipline involved is useful when it comes to the larger figurative work," she explained.