Mynydd i’r Môr
22nd June - 27th July 2024
This exhibition is a celebration of the Welsh Landscape by Colin Davies, Sandra Wintle and David Williams. It brings together a collection of paintings inspired by the dramatic scenery of both land and sea.
‘Mynydd i’r Môr’ (‘Mountain to the Sea’) is the result of a collaboration by three artists with a mutual appreciation of the other’s work, but each possessing their own unique way of interpreting a personal connection with their surroundings. Whilst media, styles and techniques vary, each uses an expressive, fluid style to create a vibrant depiction of the rugged beauty of the Welsh coastline and mountains. The work on show is inspired by their own experience of a place and the images it generates in the imagination. It is hoped that this exhibition will evoke memories and emotions, both past and present, that are important to all of us.
Colin Davies
I’m a self-taught, full-time artist based in South Wales. Raised locally, in a beautiful part of Bannau Brycheiniog, I feel fortunate to combine life in the Welsh valleys with time spent on the coast, in Mumbles, for much of the year.
I never cease to be amazed and inspired by the beautiful coastline and mountains of my homeland and enjoy spending much of my time painting it. I sit for hours, with sketch book and camera, watching the waves whipped into a wind-blown frenzy. I strive to paint the noise and to communicate the drama and powerful presence of unstoppable water cascading inland with pounding fury.
Equally, I love the time spent walking the mountains, where billowing skies and wind-swept moorland provides the inspiration for much of my more recent work.
Using oil and acrylics, my paintings are often created with the generous application of paint using palette knife and finished with more detailed brushwork. Using textural contrast, I aim to create atmosphere and mood as well as the impression of movement in many of the pieces.
David Williams
Artist Statement
As an artist, it is the atmosphere and moods of the Welsh landscape that are my motivation and inspiration. It is that spontaneous moment that holds my attention that I aim to capture allowing the viewer to experience what initially inspired me to visually create.
I am a part-time, self-taught artist, working from my studio in Tonna, Neath. After studying Art to ‘A’ level, I continued to draw and paint in subsequent years, and teach Physical Education and Art at Llangatwg Community School, located at the base of the Vale of Neath.
My body of work for Mynydd O’r Mor is a collection of paintings that evoke the drama and intensity of the Welsh coastline to the subtle tones and values of the Vale of Neath. I feel a great affinity with the landscape of the Vale of Neath, sketching and painting the mountains, forests and fields for many years’ while the coastline of South, West and North Wales offer contrasting subject matter.
Starting with sketches on location, the painting is completed in the studio, using the medium of oil paint. After initially creating the composition of the subject, palette knives and brushes are then used to blend, scrape back and make marks of varied thickness and application depicting textures, forms and atmosphere to create an impression of a specific time and place.
Sandra Wintle
Living on the South Wales coast, the inspiration for my sea paintings comes from the drama and excitement of the powerful storms that ravage the coast. The colours and textures of the rocks, eroded by the motion of the tides, are rich and varied. I aim to capture the moment of impact of the rushing waves against the rocky foreshore or cliff face, and the ensuing explosion of power and energy.
Many recent paintings have been specifically influenced again, by the erosion of rocks – and the resulting formations made by hundreds, and thousands, of years of weather carving the landscape.
