THE latest show at Pure Art in Milford Haven brings together two artists with a love of Wales: Pembrokeshire painter Maggie Brown and Ishbel McWhirter, a favourite pupil of Oskar Kokoschka. Here they describe their influences.

Ishbel McWhirter's latest work, on show at Pure Art in Milford Haven this week, gives a vivid glimpse of the views from her studio on Anglessey.

"It overlooks the end of Bangor pier," she says. "I can see up into Snowdonia, which is lovely because very often with seascapes you've got the sea and nothing else but sky, but here you've got the sea and the pleasure of a pier, some houses and the mountains."

Those views have inspired her work for many years, although she is also known as a perceptive portrait painter. A portrait of the late Sir Kyffin Williams, who was one of her neighbours on Anglesey, is included in the show.

Now in her 80s, Ishbel was a favourite pupil of the famous Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka, and her work reflects his influence.

Ishbel attended AS Neill's famous progressive Summerhill boarding school and became Kokoschka's pupil after her art teacher showed him some of his pupils' work.

"Apparently Kokoschka came to my work and said, 'I would teach that one,'" she recalls. "After that I got a postcard from my art teacher who told me Kokoschka was prepared to teach me."

Kokoschka continued to teach Ishbel in London for seven years, during which she learnt much of his philosophical approach to art as well as receiving technical guidance.

"He advised me to use strong colours, he said they were good for me. He noted with satisfaction that I kept a relatively clean palette, like him, and that I couldn't paint pots, also like him," she recalls.

She went on to forge a successful art career of her own - a career that continues in her old age. She is motivated by an urge to capture and record moments in time.

"I try to grab a moment that will disappear forever," she says. "It could be a strange light on the water, an unlikely sky, or the mood around a person - the tilt of the head, the droop of an eyelid, the curve of the mouth - something so simple can take my breath away and it's enough to make me lunge into the working process. I try very hard to preserve that first snapshot vision that so excited me; I really cannot work any other way."

Ishbel is exhibiting alongside talented Pembrokeshire painter Maggie Brown. Originally a textile designer, Maggie became a painter when she moved to Letterston in 2004.

"Suddenly I found myself having the confidence to just paint for myself," she says. "It was the light in Pembrokeshire that inspired me; it helped me rediscover my passion for nature."

Maggie quickly made her mark, winning the Tenby Open art competition in 2008.

Now working as an art teacher and professional painter, she continues to draw on her surroundings for inspiration.

"The paintings combine my love for nature, the landscape and the elements with an exploration of colour, surface pattern and texture," she says. "They are a record capturing quiet times of observation, and they are the beginning of an important journey for me."

Pure Art's owner Leslie Crascall is delighted at the contrast offered by the two painters.

He said: "Both Maggie and Ishbel have a passion for the scenery that surrounds them and this is reflected in their work, which offers an exciting and vivid perspective on two very different parts of Wales."

Maggie and Ishbel's work is on show at Pure Art until May 31.