After a long and successful career as an illustrator Ray Evans has returned to painting as his first love.During the last two years he has been inspired by three visits to the Republic of Ireland. These visits co-incided with a return to painting in acrylics - which was Ray's preferred medium thirty years ago. Although there is still a degree of abstraction in his work, he is more excited by the moods and brooding atmosphere of subjects. Fishermen and workers are his favourite subjects. His illustration work was mainly of a highly detailed and architectural nature. Now he finds that the freedom of painting in acrylics has released him from these restrictions and given his work a new and re-invigorated life.He has written several books - about drawing and painting buildings and the art of sketching. Ray is an ardent user of sketchbooks.A critic wrote of his work in a recent exhibition ..... "His paintings explore familiar subjects - the landscape and foreshore. Often the people can be seen quietly going about their business. There is a strong sense of colour in the paintings and Ray's natural gifts for draughtsmanship, composition and design are ever-present. The wonderful tonal control gives the paintings a restrained but joyous quality. I believe that Ray's latest work is his finest to date and shows a painter working at his best and most imaginative."Ray Evans is a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, a Fellow of the Society of Architectural Illustrators and the Royal Cambrian Society.