Garn Fawr, Pembrokeshire 1968

Curator: Here we have "Garn Fawr, Pembrokeshire" by John Piper, part of the Tate collection. Piper, born in 1903, was quite influenced by his involvement in recording Britain's architectural heritage in the 1930s. Editor: Woah, it's a riot of colour, like a landscape seen through a kaleidoscope after a particularly good dream! It's got this raw, almost chaotic energy. Curator: Indeed! Piper embraced Romanticism, often depicting ruins and landscapes. Notice how he uses abstraction to capture the essence of a place rather than a literal representation. Editor: I feel it. It's less about being accurate and more about capturing a mood, an atmosphere. That frantic energy, all those swirling colours...it's pretty evocative. Curator: This piece can be seen as part of his effort to preserve a vision of British landscape in a time of social change. It's now part of our collective cultural heritage. Editor: I love it; it's like Piper bottled a little bit of the wild Welsh countryside and let it explode on the canvas. Makes you want to be there, breathing it all in.