Valley FarmShirley Anne Owen

Exhibition at Home: The Welsh Group

Across Two Valleys

The Welsh Group | Y Grŵp Cymreig is a long-established group of professional artists making a significant contribution to raising the profile of the visual arts in Wales. There are currently 37 members, including a chair’s mentee, who come together to exhibit art that encompasses a wide variety of styles as well as media and processes.

The Group’s exhibition Across Two Valleys which was due to show in May 2020 at the Cynon Valley Museum and Redhouse, Merthyr Tydfil, has been rescheduled for March 2021. The members responded positively to the theme and their interpretation of across two valleys is wide in its subject matter and depiction. The Abernant Tunnel connecting the Cynon and Taff valleys and Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil caught the imagination of some of the artists and is the subject of their work.

This exhibition gives a preview of some of the work that will be shown in the exhibition across the two venues next spring.

Further information about the Group and individual members may be found on the Group’s website and an exhibition of small paintings and sculpture Twenty Twenty is at the Found Gallery in Brecon from 19 August until 13 September 2020.

Coal 300 Megaannum 2Angela Kingston

“Women worked in the iron stone quarries. Two women were expected to break around 12 tons of limestone in one 12 hour shift . This was enough to supply one furnace.”

A Lost ChildhoodGerda Roper

My grandfather and me. circa 1955Paul Brewer

My grandfather left Piltown in Kilkenny during the first world war. After serving in the army as a medical orderly on the Somme, the family eventually moved and settled in Aberdare. As a council member he also held office as chair of the then Aberdare Urban District Council. Like many immigrants, he deferred his own personal development to the advantage of his children, ensuring that they would make significant professional contributions to society.

Two generations later, now aged 74 I have taken advantage of his generosity, enabled me to study, and eventually work full time as a professional artist.