A COLWYN Bay artist has traded the North Wales shoreline for the waterways of Venice.

While images of the seaside on his doorstep usually dominate the work of realist painter Mike Briscoe RCA, for his new show at Ffin y Parc Gallery this month he is transported to the magic and romance of Venice.

Briscoe said: “The exhibition consists of works inspired mainly from a recent trip to Venice.

“The subjects are based on reference collected mostly in the form of photographs after spending days walking along the many canals and narrow walkways and then worked on back at my studio.

“The work has my own take on this fascinating city and hopefully not too much of the stereotypical tourist images.”

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Gallery owner Ralph Sanders added: “The setting is an ideal one to show Mike’s skill, his patient eye for detail and his ability to catch a fleeting feeling and to amplify a concealed mood.”

Joining Briscoe in the gallery space shared are fellow Welsh artists James Guy Eccleston and Colin See-Paynton RCA.

Born in 1972, Eccleston trained at Bourneville College and Wolverhampton University and studied under R O Lenkiewicz for eight years.

Eccleston said: “After years of looking at portraits and figures in galleries for their fabrics I'm introducing my own subjects that can look back at me and be arranged as characters in their own right.”

To select the works for Colin See-Paynton’s show, gallery owner Sanders spent the day with the famous wood engraver and chose his personal favourite pieces from a lifetime of Colin’s work.

Colin moved to Wales in 1972 and started teaching himself engraving and began making prints in 1980. He has since become one of the most successful and highly regarded wood-engravers in the UK.

Sanders added: “Some of these engraving are very rare and we are delighted to host this wonderful show.”

An exhibition of works by Mike Briscoe RCA, James Guy Eccleston and Colin See-Paynton RCA at Ffin y Parc Gallery from Sunday, March 3 to Wednesday 27. For more information, visit the venue on Betws Road, Llanrwst, via welshart.net or call 01492 642070.