91Èȱ¬

Josef Herman had a formula for creating the faces of the Welsh miners he painted. They were very statuesque - they seem like studies for sculptures to me. He painted them as heroic figures because that's the way he saw Welsh miners, as heroes. I think it was the first time that most people had ever had that pointed out to them, that these men were so heroic, so courageous and gutsy, braving possible death underground at every step. He had nothing but admiration for them and that came out in his paintings.

Tackling his style, I first of all did a painting of a young coal miner, a watercolour, which was a very good representation of him, a good likeness and everything, but I realised at the end of it, that I hadn't done it in anything like Herman's style of painting. It wasn't statuesque, it wasn't like a monument, it wasn't sculptural looking at all.

When I got back to my studio, I tried to tackle an oil, using my watercolour painting simply as a reference. I thought I'd take that pose and that image of the young man resting his one hand on his chin,Ìýwith him sitting down and leaning forward, as he was in my original painting, but turn it into one of Herman's images of the great, strongly muscled miners with the huge miner's lamp and helmet.

I did a sort of statuesque version of my watercolour and tried to make it look for all the world like an Easter Island statue, the way Herman's paintings looked. I think it worked very, very well. I think that was my most successful painting as far as trying to get a grip of what the original works were like and recreating a certain artist's style.

Rolf was in conversation with the 91Èȱ¬ Cymru Wales press office.

Watch the second episode on Wednesday at 7.30pm on 91Èȱ¬ One Wales, or catch up afterwards on 91Èȱ¬ iPlayer.