The vibrant colours of Africa and Jamaica have been introduced to Cletwr in a new exhibition by Linda Henry.

Colour, Landscape and Place at the community centre in Tre’r-ddôl is made up of mixed media paintings and the textile pictures are made from found scraps of material and even of things collected on the beach at Borth, where Linda now lives.

Linda is originally from Leicestershire, where she trained in textile design at Loughborough College of Art. Since then she has had a varied career; teaching, working in a pottery and as an upholsterer.

She has always loved colour. With her husband, she began to visit the Gambia in Africa and became entranced with the colours and textures of African fabrics. Elements from African design can be seen in her paintings.

An even more important influence came when she settled for five years in Jamaica, her husband’s original home.

Jamaica has a strong tradition of visual art and Linda was able to exhibit her work in a large open exhibition there. She also began to make necklaces and carved objects, using beads, shells, gourds and other found objects.

The work on show at Cletwr is abstract but it shows the influence of the dramatic landscapes, light and colour that surrounded her in Jamaica.

She explains that living by the sea in Borth she “now finds inspiration in the differing qualities of light and landscape, using textiles, collage and paint to evoke memories of place”.

The textile works are hand stitched and usually evolve from sorting through her collection of materials and allowing an image to build up without a definite idea of what it will look like. She describes her work as “abstract images that sometimes happen to look like things in the landscape”.

The exhibition is on display until 21 August.