Essay by former Artist & Ceramics Lecturer, Dr. Terry Davies.
Residing in Borth is a family of talented artists including painter and printmaker Stuart Evans, his wife Jenny a conservator, photographer and ceramist and their son Jonah, a painter and printmaker. Stuart was born in Carmarthen and after school completed a three-year teacher training course in Hertfordshire. He gained a position at the Royal Academy London, and from there returned to Wales where he was employed as a technician/designer/curator at the Ceredigion Museum Aberystwyth from 1976 to 2019. To expand his skills, he attended classes in ceramics and drawing, the latter under the tutelage of Roy Marsden. Stuart has produced a vast body of artwork that includes drawings and prints as well as landscape, still life and figurative paintings. In 2004 he was a founder member of Aberystwyth Printmakers and was its first chairperson and currently serves as one of its directors. Today it has a thriving membership of over 50 artists.
Stuart’s talents first emerged when he made a series of hand coloured lino cuts based on the collection of 19th century sailing ship paintings held in the Ceredigion Museum. These originals recorded an important aspect of local history and punctuated the as yet unchallenged statement made by the late Dr Geraint Jenkins, one of Wales’s leading maritime historians, who declared that “in the 19th century Ceredigion was the greatest nursery of seamen in the British Isles”. Stuart’s interpretations of these vessels were an instant success and appeared on saleable items in the museum’s shop. These prints became increasingly sophisticated and expanded to include ships from other Welsh ports.
In 2011 Stuart gained an MA in Fine Art Printmaking from the School of Art Aberystwyth. From that time on he has played many roles as instigator, organiser, curator, as well as contributing to numerous local, national, and international exhibitions. These included “Maps and Makers” and “Hadau/Seeds” in 2014; the latter was a project that saw young woodworkers engage with forestry management. In 2015 “Journey West U.S.A.” was a joint exhibition with his wife Jenny Williamson, of prints, photographs, and constructions. Stuart’s contribution was 8-foot-long lino prints alongside large- scale photographs by Jenny, inspired by a journey they made across America. Another 2015 exhibition “Towards the West”, organised by Stuart and the staff at Ceredigion Museum, focused on the influx of people arriving in West Wales in the 1970’s. Fifty people from the community volunteered information and a symposium was held to outline the issues raised by the exhibits that included artefacts, photographs, music and personal statements. The project explored the landscape and its management, as well as concerns about language and the cultural changes in mid Wales in that 45-year period.
In 2016 thirteen artists were invited to respond to Thomas Pennant’s 1778 publication “Tours in Wales”.The resulting exhibition was titled “Curious Travellers, Movement, Landscape, Art”, which was funded by the University of Wales Centre of Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. Each artist produced their own individual take on a chosen segment of Pennant’s travels. This resulted in a touring exhibition with an accompanying publication. In this exercise Stuart’s focus was on Cader Idris which he travelled over on horseback. In 2019 he was a leading player in a community project in conjunction with Borth Arts Group, titled “Borth Begins”. This was looking at the early history of herring fishing and the villages maritime history, sourced primarily from the works of two local historians Beryl Lewis and Terry Davies. This culminated in a walking theatrical performance through the village. Recently Stuart has made a series of dry point views of Borth that will be included in a collection of 10 fictional short stories set in the village by a local author.
The Aberystwyth Printmakers set up an international print portfolio and exchange collaboration over 3 years from 2017-2020 titled “Rivers of Gold”. This focused on the history of mining and its impact on ecosystems and water resources globally. The resulting prints were shown at galleries in Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Wales. This exhibition punctuated Stuart’s concerns with the area’s environmental record, past and present. This has relevance to the situation that existed in Ceredigion as a result of centuries long lead mining which eventually poisoned the Rheidol and Ystwyth rivers, to such a degree that Aberystwyth fishermanJohn Jones complained that since 1850 pollution of the coastal waters had damaged the local herring spawning ground. This was recorded by Buckland and Walpole in the 1870’s government survey of British Fisheries. Later in 1913 these same rivers were described by A.D. Grimble as “fish-less sewers” and he questioned why environmental laws that existed then were not enacted upon. As often happens it was the shooting/fishing fraternity that brought these rivers back to life and re- stocked them. In 1999 an article in the Daily Telegraph by Leyla Linto, stated that there were still “ticking time-bombs” in West Wales as there were dangerous levels of lead in waters trapped in some old mines that could, in certain conditions, spill out to endanger the rivers again. Today we have polluted waterways in Wales and the U.K. at large because of the lack of due diligence on the part of Water Boards. Suffice to say that lead mining was incredibly profitable for the few such as Sir Hugh Myddleton 1560-1631, who was knighted for bringing fresh water to London in the 1600’s.
Jenny Williamson, born in London, is a highly respected fine art conservator. She studied Natural Science and History of Art at Cambridge University and trained as a painting conservator at the Courtauld Institute London, she also had internships at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery London and the Victoria Memorial Calcutta. She has lectured at Aberystwyth University for a decade and was a trustee and vice chair on the board of Icon. Jenny is the paintings conservator at the National Library of Wales and the Glyn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea. It was at the latter institute where she and Stuart met. Her expertise and standing in her field was recognised when she was made a Fellow of the International Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Jenny has carried out remedial work on Sir Kyffin Williams’ paintings and also on Richard Wilson’s portrait of Catherine of Colomendy painted in 1740. The latter was problematic because of overpainting and altered composition resulting in Jenny painstakingly returning it to its original state. A portrait of Catrin O Ferain, known as the Mother of Wales, was another restoration project. This was painted in 1568 probably by the Dutch master Adriaen Van Cronburgh and not, as previously thought, by Lucas de Heere.
Jenny’s father, a chemical engineer, has in his retirement made beautiful furniture, inspired by Renee Mackintosh, which are in constant use at her home in Borth... he is also a talented painter living in Dorset. With these influences a career in art beckoned. Her interest in ceramics began when she started taking classes in 1984 at Poole Dorset, resulting in her falling instantly in love with this tactile malleable material. Her influences have been the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements, Bauhaus artists, Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures and the Modernist ceramics of Lucie Rie and Hans Coper.
With her busy schedule as conservator, it is remarkable that she has consistently produced a body of quality work over the years. In 2002 she and Stewart were invited to attend a Welsh heritage event at Poultney College, New England. This was a slate producing area where many North Wales quarrymen and their families had emigrated to in the 19th century. Stuart exhibited lino cut prints of North Wales quarry sites and conducted print making classes whilst Jenny taught ceramics.
Even though the majority of her ceramics are wheel thrown, Jenny took up the coil building method which she found a pleasurable process that seemed to forma close bond between artist and material. These works exude a timeless quality, which I conjecture comes from the Cycladic influences that underpinned Coper’s work which now seep into her forms. Individually, or as a group, these tall elegant, assured pieces, reflect her physical presence and personality.
Jenny’s black and white palette sums up her no-nonsense character as she hates obfuscation. This directness pervades her ceramics, which magnetise one’s attention with their assured serenity and controlled symmetry. These sculptural forms have a sense of spatial precision as their profiles seem more important than any considerations of volume or sense of practicality. Considering that she cannot devote her entire energies into her ceramic work because of the demands of her profession, she has produced a sophisticated body of work that displays an urban modernist aesthetic. Jenny has exhibited at the Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth, twice at the National Eisteddfod Arts Exhibition, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Jen Jones Quilt Centre, Lampeter and Mid Wales Arts, Caersws. She has sold work through galleries in Bath, Cardiff, Swansea, Borth and Crickhowell.
Stuart and Jenny’s son, Jonah, completed a Fine Art course at Coleg Ceredigion Aberystwyth. After completion of this he was meant to start his first year at Bristol Art School when Covid broke out, so he made the decision to return home to Borth to hone up his skills as well as expanding his subject matter. As Jenny remarks, “there they were, father and son each side of a large table carving away into lino in preparation for printing.” Jonah produced a remarkable set of very individual bird prints at this time which were exhibited at the Cletwr Complex, Trerddol.
Not only is he still printmaking, obviously inspired by his father’s work, but he is also painting and designing posters, t-shirt logos and tattoos, and is currently in the final year of his art degree. He exhibited a very large circular lino cut with the Borth Group at Mid Wales Art, Caersws, which depicted gannets diving into a shoal of mackerel. Recently, as part of the Aberystwyth Printmakers exhibition, at the same venue, he exhibited another large print “Two Ships Gone Sailing By”
Jonah has also executed a magnificent print of the Taliesin story. This work demonstrates his sophisticated compositional skills as he includes all the shape shifting elements of that story, from Gwion Bach’s indiscreet tasting of the forbidden potion in a cauldron through the different manifestations until, finally, young Taliesin is found as a baby floating in Gwyddno Garanhir’s fish trap at Wallog near Borth...so local legend has it. Jonah’s work to date indicates a prospective stellar career as an artist.
Stuart’s art has constantly been sourced from his home region, whether it reflects its maritime history as well as its social, environmental, and ecological mores. Over the last 40 years he has worked tirelessly in organising events involving other artists and the community at large. Jenny’s clay works, with their contemporary sensibilities, are an important addition to current ceramics being made in Wales. Jonah, like his father, draws inspiration from the natural world of his home environment with his zoomorphic imagery, as well as interpreting local legends and fables. The magical element of folklore encourages embellishment and personal interpretations. When they are transformed by the likes of Jonah, the human condition, using the props of ancient tales, is presented to a contemporary audience in a visual language they understand. His large-scale prints are fearlessly and confidently executed which in his skilled hands are flawless. The work of these three family members is memorable and contributes much to current Welsh art.
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