sombre welsh art
Jane Carpenter
onWelsh Art,He says that on the whole the Welsh as he knows us are a
jovial,happy people but our art never portrays that,he said that we only
paint images of sombre dour faced miners and drab pitheads and he feels we
always carry that part of our history like a cross on our backs.
He worked as a Miner himself in Wales in the 40s and50s and he is well aware
of the hardship and sacrifice made by these men,but he feels our art should
move on from all that.No doubt,someone who does know a bit about Welsh art
will probably tell me that it has moved on,but i do agree with my friend to
some extent because most of the Murals,Mosaics and Drawings you see in city
centres mostly portray the kind of sombre subject he talks of,and if our art
has moved on its not that evident on the streets.
P.S.Because i am from the South Wales valleys i can only speak for the
murals and drawings from my own area.
Dave Thomas
<bac...@carpenterj.fsnet.co.uk> writes
>An English friend of mine who`s getting on a bit now,gave me his opinion
>onWelsh Art,He says that on the whole the Welsh as he knows us are a
>jovial,happy people but our art never portrays that,he said that we only
>paint images of sombre dour faced miners and drab pitheads and he feels we
>always carry that part of our history like a cross on our backs.
>He worked as a Miner himself in Wales in the 40s and50s and he is well aware
>of the hardship and sacrifice made by these men,but he feels our art should
>move on from all that.No doubt,someone who does know a bit about Welsh art
>will probably tell me that it has moved on,but i do agree with my friend to
>some extent because most of the Murals,Mosaics and Drawings you see in city
>centres mostly portray the kind of sombre subject he talks of,and if our art
>has moved on its not that evident on the streets.
Yes, when you think how inspirational was celtic art and how rich was
Welsh poetry...it is a crying shame that we went through that period of
blackness which so typified the period from the start of the industrial
revolution. Was the minor key always the Welsh standard - or did it
just develop out of the bleackness of the 19C valleys?
Thank goodness the younger generation is moving music on a bit now. As
for art, well I have a cousin who is a well known Swansea artist and who
was the official artist for the NCB in South Wales. She paints drab
mining scenes but also delights in painting at music concerts and gigs.
Without wishing to be too controversial or offending anyone, the old
non-conformists did quite a lot to destroy any hwyl that existed in any
Welsh community - by turning festivals into prayer meetings and creating
the deadly boring Welsh Sunday of my youth, when mowing the lawn would
have been considered a near blasphemy.
(As a pasing thought, am told that the number of art galleries in Wales
is significantly lower per capita than anywhere else in the uk).
--
Dave Thomas
John Sullivan
<Da...@qantam.demon.co.uk>
What's your definition of gallery? Does the old school at Defynnog
count? This is definitely a gallery - sorry can't remember the name, but
I've bought several pictures there over the years. What about "The White
Horse Inn" at Pontneddfechan, a pub which has a fine selection of
paintings by Christine Eynon for sale. A few years ago we dropped in
there for a pint, and met the artist, who was having an exhibition
there, and the press was there, too, so our picture appeared with her in
the Western Mail the next day. Oh, yes, and we bought a couple of
pictures there as well.
Incidentally, Christine must be an exception to what has been said
above. I have some of her pictures; none of them is sombre but they are
all wonderful and airy. Her picture of Glyn Neath High Street is very
evocative of the valleys of South Wales on a fine spring day.
I also have a few paintings by R W Harrison; these are also not sombre,
but wonderful studies of light and weather in the Brecon Beacons.
--
John Sullivan
-------------
Die dulci fruimini, o vos omnes!
remove the dots from the first three (Welsh) words for my real address
J. P. Williams
another is Sir Kyffin Williams RA of Anglesey - his work always delights the
viewer. His work can be seen in Albany Road Cardiff usually. Another is
Peter Prendergast originally from Caerphilly but resident in N Wales for
many years. He exhibits regularly in Bond street London - a fine artist.
There many others of high standard also that merit mentioning.
Jane Carpenter <bac...@carpenterj.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8fpp07$2dc$1...@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...
> An English friend of mine who`s getting on a bit now,gave me his opinion
> onWelsh Art,He says that on the whole the Welsh as he knows us are a
> jovial,happy people but our art never portrays that,he said that we only
> paint images of sombre dour faced miners and drab pitheads and he feels we
> always carry that part of our history like a cross on our backs.
> He worked as a Miner himself in Wales in the 40s and50s and he is well
aware
> of the hardship and sacrifice made by these men,but he feels our art
should
> move on from all that.No doubt,someone who does know a bit about Welsh art
> will probably tell me that it has moved on,but i do agree with my friend
to
> some extent because most of the Murals,Mosaics and Drawings you see in
city
> centres mostly portray the kind of sombre subject he talks of,and if our
art
> has moved on its not that evident on the streets.
Dave Thomas
<jo...@y.ddraig.goch.demon.co.uk> writes
>>(As a pasing thought, am told that the number of art galleries in Wales
>>is significantly lower per capita than anywhere else in the uk).
>
>What's your definition of gallery? Does the old school at Defynnog
>count? This is definitely a gallery - sorry can't remember the name, but
>I've bought several pictures there over the years. What about "The White
>Horse Inn" at Pontneddfechan, a pub which has a fine selection of
>paintings by Christine Eynon for sale. A few years ago we dropped in
>there for a pint, and met the artist, who was having an exhibition
>there, and the press was there, too, so our picture appeared with her in
>the Western Mail the next day. Oh, yes, and we bought a couple of
>pictures there as well.
No, I was meaning public/municipal art galleries such as the Glyn Vivian
in Swansea. Certainly there are a large number of exhibitions held
throughout Wales - where paintings are sold.
>
>Incidentally, Christine must be an exception to what has been said
>above. I have some of her pictures; none of them is sombre but they are
>all wonderful and airy. Her picture of Glyn Neath High Street is very
>evocative of the valleys of South Wales on a fine spring day.
>
>I also have a few paintings by R W Harrison; these are also not sombre,
>but wonderful studies of light and weather in the Brecon Beacons.
Valerie Ganz produces some brilliant studies of people and places. (She
was a pupil of Alfred Janes).
--
Dave Thomas
Martyn Field
so thanks for that. I saw some of his work on display when I was on teaching
practice at Coleg Harlech several years ago - wonderful. Another artist I liked
who died a few years ago was Paul Peter Pietch (I think that's how it is
spelt). Pietch did a lot of silkscreen stuff with bold logoistic writing but
also did screens of the the great jazz artists of the 20s and 30s. You can see
them on display (and for sale) sometimes at the Brecon Jazz festival. Born in
the USA but resident for many years near Porthcawl, Wales became his adopted
home and indeed, some years ago the Slate did a programme about him. His most
famous work and my favourite was the Stars and Stripes turned on its side with
the stars replaced by Swastikas and a black face behind the bars that the
stripes had become. I have one of his originals at home which is the Welsh
national anthem and this fab dragon all in striking red and green.
"J. P. Williams" wrote:
--
Martyn Field
Senior Tutor & Undergraduate Administrator
School of Humanities
Oxford Brookes University
Tel. 01865 483572
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/humanities/
http://www.geocities.com/martynfield_1999/