Freddy, who hails from the Conwy Valley, is an alumnus of the Royal Drawing School in London and is currently on the Fine Art programme at Newcastle University, widely considered one of the best in the UK.

'My work is very much focused on the power and changeability of the landscape, how it’s not a backdrop but a living thing that shapes and influences our lives,' Freddy explains. 'I want my pictures to reflect not how somewhere looks, but what it feels like to be there, to communicate a real sense of place.'

Freddy spends a lot of his time sketching and painting en plein air in the mountains of Snowdonia and on the coast of Anglesey. He is currently preoccupied with the sea and how – through a combination of weather, light and tides – it is constantly changing and reshaping itself. 'It looks like this solid, still mass out there, but it is in a state of continual and restless flux and I love that.'

He cites the British trio of Frank Auerbach, John Virtue and Kurt Jackson as his biggest influences, artists who return to the same subject matter again and again. 'It’s as though their extreme familiarity with their subjects gives them the freedom to explore new interpretations and visions,' Freddy adds.

Freddy’s sense of the dramatic and affinity with scale, he says, is also inspired by the German artist Anselm Kiefer and former Turner Prize nominee Tacita Dean. 'They’re both geniuses in their ability to create a sense of awe and wonder at the matter they are depicting,' he continues. 'That’s what art is all about, isn’t it? Provoking an emotional response that in turn sets off intellectual reflection.'

See more Freddy’s art on Instagram @fredcanpaint