SPAN was thrilled to welcome participants to Rhiannon Rees’s Gentle Painting Project, part of our 2024 Love Stories to Nature programme.
As our latest Love Stories to Nature commission, artist Rhiannon Rees led a gentle, site-responsive painting project that invited people from across Pembrokeshire to contribute dry soil, rocks, and pebbles—materials gathered from the land they call home.
Rhiannon’s practice blends her passion for sustainable painting techniques with a deep-rooted connection to her Welsh heritage. With one side of her family having once mined the Welsh land and the other having farmed it, her work with natural pigments speaks directly to this ancestry. She forages industrial waste and natural materials from across Wales, transforming them into delicate paints that speak of place and memory.
The Gentle Painting Project became a beautiful act of collective mapping, inviting Pembrokeshire communities to explore and express the subtle, earthy colours of their landscape. Through this process, Rhiannon shared a quieter, more mindful approach to painting—one that honours the land and deepens our connection to
