More Visuals
This sub-section, in common with the original VISUAL ARTS section, features the work of a number of painters and other artists.
Click the dark buttons above the short biography of each guest artist to see samples of work. Those with very different styles and subject matter have kindly agreed to let me use some of their artworks for this purpose. All images remain in the copyright of the individual artist, even where the original artwork has been sold to a third party. I thank them all for their help. Links back to the artists' own web sites have been given on the individual pages where possible.
Will has no formal training. Having grown up as the eldest in a family where his father was an ‘ag lab’ he was encouraged to get out and earn a living as soon as possible, and so at 15 he took up an apprenticeship with a blacksmith. But painting was always uppermost in his mind, and he was able to supplement his wages by selling his work. Finally in 1995 after retiring he held the first of eight exhibitions at various venues in Somerset.
Although he has in the past enjoyed painting in most mediums, he now finds larger paintings in oils or acrylics are easier on the eyes. All his work reflects his love of nature and outdoor life.
Exceptionally, the images of three of Cornel's paintings have been added to the site without his permission. This is because several years ago he entered a monastery in his native Romania and cannot now be contacted. Before this, he was an engineer by trade and a painter by vocation. He was a winner of the SF Eurocon Prize for Painting and several national prizes. His paintings can be found in private collections throughout the world.
If Cornel contacts me at any time in the future, I will be pleased to make any changes he wishes (the painting titles are my own invention, for example) or remove them altogether.
Influenced by the philosophy of Rudloph Steiner, Jo completed her degree in art and health. She has a deep interest in palliative care and now, from her gallery in Cliff Cottage, St Brides, Pembrokeshire, specialises in working with both adults and children.
Her own painting explores her relationship with colour, movement, light and dark. The coast with its dramatic sky and sea is a world familiar to Jo and her love for this natural environment dominates her work. Examples of this are held in private collections internationally and she has had exhibitions in Wales and England.
Dan is a visual artist mixing drawing, cartoons and graffiti. He works directly on the walls of museums and art spaces with the aim of commenting on political and social issues. Dan lives in Bucharest, Romania, but works all over the world. The pictures here appeared in 2007 exhibitions at MoMa, New York and in the solo exhibition States of Mind, Nasher Museum at Duke University, 2007.
Alan Perry is a poet, painter, short story writer and illustrator. His play about homelessness in Swansea, Music You Don't Normally Hear, was directed in Cardiff by Karl Francis. His New and Selected Poems "Dreaming from North to South" was published this year by Moonstone Press. Herbert Williams said of it in Roundyhouse: 'These poems bristle with the grit and substance of everyday life...[Alan Perry] is an underrated Welsh Treasure." Days of the Comet, Perry's Collected Stories, was published by Moonstone. A short story will be featured on the Even More Guests section of this website.
Mark Lewis wrote in Pembrokeshire Life about Doug Perry's past life which has been ruled by art from a very early age. In school he excelled in art so art became top of the list in work and social activities. After his war service he continued his art studies at Canterbury and Dover Art Schools, specialising in silk screen printing, eventually working in London for many well-known firms in displays at places like Earl's Court.
Soon after this time he began working with disabled people and he spent twenty years in that field. He still continued with his art, painting local scenes in many styles but he always expressed an interest in the modern ways of painting.
Since March 2006 he has been painting in a new style as shown here. Sales and interest are rewarding and encouraging.
For Jeffrey, painting is a compositional activity involving developing form. Interests have moved from oils to mixed media on canvas, developed largely from his interest in classical and contemporary music. In addition to portraits of composers and musicians, he has, more recently, focused on the seascape and landscape of the UK and France, particularly uninhabited fields.
Commissions have included those from famous musicians, composers and critics, as well as subjects outside the musical world. Edward Greenfield, formerly of The Guardian is an enduring patron.
Jeffrey is the featured artist in his memoir Portrait Gallery published in 2014. Jeffrey also has work in private collections in England and Wales. Exhibitions in major cities have led to permanent displays of work at public venues in London, Cardiff, Liverpool, Roehampton and Northampton. He also exhibits locally at Fountain Fine Art, Llandeilo.
Rosa was born in Carmarthen in 1982 and is a glass artist and sculptor. She gained a 2.1 Honours Degree in Fine Art Sculpture from Coleg Sirgar (Carmarthen Art College) in 2010. Rosa's art practice is placed very firmly in her own experience, in particular of serious illness.
An exhibition, at Oriel Canfas in Cardiff in May 2010, Glass Darkly, incorporated installation, kiln-fire framed pieces and blown glass paperweights and bowls. She also creates delicate and colourful glass and solid silver jewellery. Rosa says, "Glass helped me realise conceptual qualities I had been trying to evoke in my work for some years. It opened many possibilities because glass has both fragility and strength. This medium is tactile and dangerous and has startling clarity and mysterious opacity."
