In 2010 Philip moved from Lincolnshire to Wales to study for an MA in Fine Arts at Aberystwyth where he was awarded a university scholarship and in 2012 he gained a Master’s Degree in Fine Art. The desire to return to Wales had been growing during the final stage of his career with an aspiration to paint and draw the Welsh landscape. No word exists in the English language to describe this longing but Welsh gives the perfect word, Hiraeth, a yearning for a place whose absence makes life incomplete. The study of the landscape formed the focus of the MA and during the course he began to study Welsh in a desire to draw closer to the landscape he was portraying: the names and deep cultural history that pervades the valleys, hills, villages, and man-made structures in Ceredigion.

​

Philip has exhibited extensively in public and private galleries in both England and Wales and has work in international and UK private collections, as well as Welsh national collections, including the National Library of Wales and MOMA Machynlleth. He has also had his work published in two books, ‘Hud Afon Arth’ (‘The Magic of the Arth’) and ‘Ysbryd Ystrad Fflur’ (‘The Spirit of Strata Florida’), in collaboration with the Welsh poet and Eisteddfod Crown Winner Cyril Jones, the Archaeologist Professor David Austin and the cultural historian Rhiannon Evans. Both books contain collections of poetry, artwork and essays focusing on the archaeological and cultural history of Ceredigion. His work has been shown on SC4 and he has completed several interviews on SC4 and BBC Radio Cymru. He has also been commissioned to produce work for the Welsh National Eisteddfod

​

Philip’s work is focused on the Ceredigion landscape and includes a collection of work produced during the last 18 months showing the changing seasons in the river Arth valley. The river runs close by Philip’s studio and is an outstanding example of the remodelling of a landscape to conform to the aesthetic principles of the Picturesque, a cultural movement which was at its height at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. The Arth valley also provided the inspiration for the book ‘Cwm y Wrach’ (‘The Witches Valley’), a fantastical story for children by Meilyr Siôn, and several illustrations produced for the book are included in the exhibition.