25 years after leaving his family's dairy farm near Brecon, artist Matt Williams is returning to the Royal Welsh Show – not with prize cattle this time, but with paintings inspired by the landscape that shaped his life.

For years, the Royal Welsh Show was one of the highlights of the farming calendar. Like generations of farming families across Wales, the Williams family prepared their Holstein cows for the show ring, hoping for success with the herd they had worked so hard to build.

Matt never imagined he would one day return in a completely different role.

In 2001, a combination of falling milk prices, rising costs and the devastating impact of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak brought an end to generations of dairy farming in the Williams family. Selling the herd marked the end of a way of life that had shaped Matt since childhood.

Although he went on to be a primary school teacher for 13 years, something of the farm never left him.

It was only after leaving farming that he began to paint. At first, he didn't realise he was trying to express his own hiraeth - that uniquely Welsh longing for a place, a people and a way of life that can never quite be recovered. Looking back, he now sees that those early paintings were less about recording places than about holding on to them.

Today, Matt paints full-time from his studio near Abergavenny, where the landscapes, farms and heritage of Wales remain at the heart of his work.

Pen y Fan in Summer from Cantref
Pen y Fan in Summer from Cantref (Matt Williams)

This year he has been invited to exhibit a collection of his paintings in the Sponsors' Pavilion beneath the Grandstand at the Royal Welsh Show. Reserved for sponsors and invited guests, the pavilion will feature his work throughout the week-long event.

The invitation comes during an exciting period in his career. Matt is currently exhibiting alongside Michael de Bono and David Griffiths MBE in a three-person exhibition at the prestigious Albany Gallery in Cardiff and has been invited to stage solo exhibitions next year at the renowned Fosse Gallery in the Cotswolds and Oriel Canfas in Cardigan.

Many of the paintings on display are inspired by the landscapes of Breconshire and Mid Wales.

Matt believes that, although he no longer farms, those years continue to shape the way he sees the world.

He said: "Leaving farming wasn't something I chose because I'd fallen out of love with it. Like many farming families, circumstances changed and we had to change with them. Looking back, and I don't think I realised it at the time, I started painting because I was trying to make sense of leaving farming. I think I was painting my own hiraeth.

"The landscape I paint isn't simply beautiful scenery. It's home. It's memory. It's the people and places that shaped me.”

Returning to the Royal Welsh Show after 25years carries particular significance.

"I used to come here hoping one of our cows might catch the judge's eye,” he said.

“25 years later, I'm returning with paintings inspired by the same fields, the same hills and the same farming communities. The medium has changed, but my love for this landscape hasn't. Coming back to the Royal Welsh in this way feels like coming home."

Matt's paintings will be on display throughout the Royal Welsh Show in the Sponsors' Pavilion, where they will provide the backdrop to one of the show's principal hospitality spaces for sponsors and invited guests.

His work can currently be seen at the Albany Gallery in Cardiff, Oriel Cric in Crickhowell, Oriel Canfas in Cardigan and online at www.fossegallery.com and his own website at www.mattwilliamsartist.com