Valerie Brennan interviews painter Jai Llewellyn about his work and process. Llewellyn's work is currently on view in the exhibition Pair: Forty Paintings, Twenty Painters, curated by Ian White Williams at Proto Gallery, Hoboken, NJ (through February 9, 2014).

Llewellyn comments: "I work in both print and paint. Etching is fast, direct and primitive, you often get just one hit at it. Whereas painting is slower, contemplative and allows for mistakes and change. The two practices often inform each other and recently there has been a more direct relationship between them. A lot of my newer works have begun with a print, usually a monotype of some kind. When I’m printing I lose myself in the process and I can play, particularly with colour, without thinking about a finished image. Working in this way sets some parameters but also enables me to try out, relatively quickly, variations on a theme. I will take the prints back to the studio at home and work on them further with various media but usually with oil. I may have ten prints of various sizes and different colours which I will work on at the same time."