It was a pleasure to meet Dawn Bowden, Welsh Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, at the opening of the “Pit Girls – Forgotten Women” exhibition at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum on 8 March 2020.
You can learn more about the paintings and the background to the exhibition here. I’ve just finished updating the page to include audio recordings of the women’s testimonies to the 1842 Parliamentary commission.
The day after the launch of the “Pit Girls – Forgotten Women” exhibition, BBC Radio Wales invited me talk about its background and the significance of the women to the Wesh mining industry.
Click on the link below to listen to the interview.
Exciting news – the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil has agreed to host my series of 12 “Pit Girl” portraits as part of a new exhibition titled “Pit Girls: Forgotten Women“!
The exhibition runs Tuesday 3 March – Sunday 31 May 2020. Opening times:
• 1 Oct – 31 March: Monday (Closed); Tuesday-Friday: 10am-4pm; Weekends: 12pm-4pm
• 1 April – 30 Sept: Monday-Friday: 10am-5pm; Weekends: 12pm-5pm.
You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits here.
The museum is located at:
Cyfarthfa Park, Brecon Road, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8RE
T: 01685 727371 | W: http://bit.ly/Cyfarthfa
Cyfarthfa Park is located north of Merthyr Tydfil town centre on the A470. The museum is 20 minutes’ walk from the centre or there is a regular bus service.
By car: Satnav postcode CF47 8PA.
STOP PRESS
Dawn Bowden (Welsh Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) has agreed to open the exhibition: 2pm, Sunday 8 March, to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Get in touch if you’d like an invitation!
The New Cut Gallery in Halesworth is one of the few local galleries not to impose a restriction on size, so I took the opportunity in December to display two of my “Superhero” series.
This is one of the four, titled “We Failed Them, My Friends – We Failed Them” (122 x 183 cms).
A good evening at last night’s Suffolk Open Studios 2019 Showcase, at the Apex Gallery in Bury.
As well as having Ania Hobson there as our special guest, the BBC recorded the event for that night’s Look East broadcast, and interviewed several of the participating artists.
Click here to watch the video – my piece is at the end!
The show runs till 31 March so get there if you can, as there’s some excellent work on display.
Some nice coverage of our art group Easterly Artists’ exhibition “Change” at the Gallery Upstairs (Fisher Theatre) in Bungay, which runs till 14 March (apologies for the poor quality of the image).
8 artists have combined forces to put on a remarkable display of work across a wide range of media – catch it before it goes!
Very proud and pleased to be taking part in the inaugural exhibition of our local artist group: Easterly Artists.
You can learn more about them and the remarkable artists who make up the group at www.easterly.org.uk but, meanwhile, hope very much to see you at the Private View:
4-6pm, Sunday 17 February
Gallery Upstairs at the Fisher Theatre
Broad Street, Bungay NR35 1EE
And if you can’t make that, the exhibition runs 10am-3pm, till Thursday 14 March 2019. That said, the gallery isn’t open on Sundays and not every day in the week, so it’s worth checking the theatre website or calling 01986 897130 beforehand!
Hope to see you there!
Fame and fortune at last! Well – fame, anyway…
It was good to be interviewed recently for a profile on my work and practice in the latest edition of ArtsEast, a leading magazine on the arts in the East.
You can read the full article online at www.artseast.co.uk.
I don’t often get the opportunity to display my larger work, so it’s great to have some on show at this year’s Cut Open Exhibition in Halesworth.
The exhibition runs till 12 January 2019 – see http://newcut.org/exhibitions for details.
I’ve recently started a new project, focusing on the Pit Girls and women – also known as Patch Girls – who used to labour in the Tredegar iron and coal works.
One of the most striking features in the few photos that exist of them, taken by William Clayton in 1865, was the extraordinary hats they wore with their daily work clothes. I’ve attempted to recreate a few examples here.
