Twenty years ago Roger Wagner and a group of fellow artists –The Metaphysical Painters – set out on the first of a series of annual pilgrimages to places associated with poets, painters and writers who transfigured the landscapes in which they lived.

The poems and paintings inspired by these journeys gave rise to a book, ‘The Farther Away’, which weaves the poems together in a narrative that begins in a Japanese bamboo forest and ends on a pilgrimage through Wales to Bardsey.

An exhibition at MOMA Machynlleth from 14 June-30 August, tells the story of those pilgrimages in the images they produced.

A man given to mystical depictions of great trees in landscapes and pastoral scenes such as the exhibition catalogue’s cover image, The Fields are White, which shows angels harvesting a field of corn, Roger also derives much inspiration from Biblical stories. He has often returned to subjects like the Annunciation, the Walking on the Water, the Prodigal Son and Paul on the Road to Damascus, while one of his most affecting single images is that of the aged St Simeon holding the infant Jesus in the Temple.

He is also, when commissioned, a remarkable portraitist.

His inspiration ranges beyond the British Isles. A particularly striking picture in the show is of the famous charred crucifix on the wall of the chapel in Hougoumont manor-house, beside the site of the battle of Waterloo, whose survival of the fire caused by French bombardment in 1815 is regarded by locals and all visitors to the site since as a miracle.

Roger Wagner: The Farther Away is open Tuesdays-Fridays, 10am-4pm, and Saturdays 10am-1pm from 14 June to 30 August. Admission is free.

A poetry reading and concert by Roger Wagner and Philip Lambert will take place at 3pm on Friday, 22 August. Free admission.