Snowdonia has attracted painters and printmakers for more than 250 years. While working on this programme I was astounded by the sheer quantity of artists who have visited the area. Different generations have been drawn by different things. Some, like the pioneer Welsh landscape artist Richard Wilson, highlighted the majesty of its peaks and castles, imposing his own order onto the landscape. Others, like J.M.W. Turner, went in search of drama, relishing the stormy, changeable weather and the stunning light effects that this produced.

When we arrived with our camera, there wasn’t a cloud in sight, let alone a Turneresque storm. Standing on the edge of Llyn Nantlle, where Wilson viewed Snowdon in 1765, the sky couldn’t have been bluer. And this was exactly how Wilson liked his landscapes; he bathed Wales in the warm, glowing light that he had experienced while living in Rome.

What excited Turner was something many of us will have experienced in the mountains. I certainly did when my father led my teenage self across Snowdonia’s famously rocky ridges. Clinging on for dear life, I came to know that combination of terror and exhilaration often found in paintings, particularly Turner’s: the Sublime. It’s one thing to admire the immediacy of Turner’s sketches in an art gallery, but experiencing the actual views that inspired him brings a very different kind of insight and understanding.

Surprisingly artists also came to Snowdonia for company rather than solitude. From the mid-nineteenth century, a vibrant artistic community established itself in Betws-y-Coed, meeting at the Royal Oak Hotel. Filming there, it was easy to imagine the convivial gatherings of visitors from all over Europe. But it’s the stay of a Welsh painter that stands out for me.

In the early twentieth century, J.D. Innes regularly visited the area between Ffestiniog and Bala. In this remote district, he and Augustus John applied the colourful language of modern European art to the Welsh landscape, to dazzling effect. Standing at the foot of the imposing mountain that inspired him, Arenig Fawr, was a highlight of the filming. Apart from the fact that two of my grandparents hailed from nearby, it’s always thrilling to stand on the spot where an artist has worked and see how their renditions compare with the view that inspired them.

And maybe that’s what makes these Snowdonia landscapes so compelling – for everyone. They present familiar and much-loved views at different moments in history and through very distinctive artistic filters, always casting the familiar in a new and revelatory light.

Inspired by Snowdonia is on BBC Two Wales, Saturday 13 June 2015 at 10pm

To find out more, and catch up with other programmes you may have missed, visit: bbc.co.uk/realnorthwales or join the conversation on social media #RealNorthWales.

Monmouth and Brecon canal

A whole year's worth of events marking the celebrations began on 10 February, 200 years to the day when the canal was first officially opened.

The waterway was origianally built between 1792 and 1812 to link Brecon with Newport and the Severn Estuary. It was an industrial corridor for coal and iron, when the Welsh coalfields were supplying fuel to the rest of the world.

These days, you're more likely to see pleasure boats and anglers on the water, with cyclists riding along the towpaths.

The ceremonial bell

Church bells rang out along the route of the canal to launch the start of celebrations from the Pontymoile Basin near Pontypool and I was there to witness the official ceremonial bell being rung by Robin Herbert, great great grandson of Benjamin Hall.

He was a member of three industrial families (the Hall, Herbert and Crawshay families) who owned iron foundries and tramways in South Wales back in 1812. Benjamin Hall also achieved unexpected immortality by giving the name of 'Big Ben' to the bell inside the clock tower in the Houses of Parliament in 1857. He became Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire in 1861.

Today, the canal runs for almost its entire 35 mile route within the Brecon Beacons National Park, following the tree lined course of the River Usk. Mark Robinson an ecologist with British Waterways told me that despite its industrial heritage, the canal is now a haven for wildlife including wildflowers, kingfishers herons, dragonflies and butterflies, mallards and moorhens.

Events later this year include the launch of a new beer made locally at the Brecon Brewery. On 31 March the dark ale called Canal Porter will be delivered by horse-drawn dray and narrow boat to the various pubs along the canal's route. Buster Grant the head brewer showed me around the brewery but sadly I couldn't try the new brew because it's not quite ready yet!

You can hear more of the celebrations marking the canal's bicentennial on this week's Country Focus which is still available on the BBC Wales iPlayer.

For more information about celebrations this year along the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, visit www.breconbeacons.org.

Speaking to the Western Mail, the Gower Society's chairman Malcolm Ridge said, "We're all for it. I can well recall the first time I went on holiday to France looking up at the night sky and seeing the beautiful starlit sky.

"Thankfully in many areas of Gower we still have beautiful starry nights but this policy will help us retain that attraction...

"It will ensure that people who come to Gower want to come back because they will not only remember the beautiful views during the day but the beautiful skies at night."

Where are the best spots in Wales you've found for a bit of astronomy?