AS she has every year for the past 12 years, Jean Miller will tomorrow open an exhibition of her paintings at her Lion Street home in Hay.

One visitor to last year’s Last Small Picture Show in Brecon Cathedral, where Jean was exhibiting, was apparently less enthusiastic than the hundreds of people who’ve bought Jean’s work since she started painting in her late 60s.

The Prince of Wales, reports Jean, wasn’t especially keen on her canvases being unframed.

“He thought they needed framing and said they’d look more attractive in frames, more interesting,” she says.

It wasn’t a piece of advice she’s taken too much notice of, and her walls are once again full of her vibrant (largely unframed) paintings and (framed) prints, ready for a week-long exhibition running alongside Hay Festival.

Jean took up a paintbrush as she headed towards her 70th birthday, “because I couldn’t think what to do,” she says.

“I went to classes at the art college, but walked out of that. I’m not very good at being taught anything.”

Instead, she follows her own advice: “Don’t think. I never plan what I’m going to paint,” she declares. “When I’m in doubt, I stick a brush in the red tube.”

The exhibition at 10 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye runs until Sunday, June 3.