THE landscape artist, J. M. W. Turner, though a Londoner born and bred, loved Wales and one of his well-known paintings is of Carew Castle. Turner, perhaps the most famous English Romantic landscape artist, became known as the painter of light.

Carew Castle, which overlooks a 23 acre millpond, has been painted by many artists over the years, but never more strikingly than by Turner during one of his five tours of Wales.

The 20-year-old Turner sketched Carew Castle in 1795 and completed the painting some years later. Its now at Manchester Art Gallery.

Mike Candler, site manager at Carew Castle, said: It was at the time when many artists came to Wales, the Lake District and other parts of Britain to paint, as the Napoleonic Wars restricted their movement further afield.

By the age of 20, Turner was already a successful artist and an artist who took a certain amount of licence with his subjects. His painting of Carew Castle includes a tower, which hes placed behind the castle. Theres no tower there in reality. In fact, its the tower of Carew Cheriton Church about half-a-mile away.

In the first programme of HTVs new series of High Performance on Sunday, October 28th, at 5 pm, four of todays artists are given a challenge to produce their take on Turner. Theyre asked to create their own artistic work based on Carew Castle.

The four are water colourist Steven Allan Griffiths, of Llanelli; oil painter David Burton, of Pembroke; environmental sculptor Morag Colquhoun, of Sennybridge, and photographer Tina Carr, of Llandysul.

How will their work compare to Turners masterpiece? Watch the programme to find out.