Window onto Wales: Events
Exhibitions, Events, Classes and Workshops
Hilary Bryanston, Roy Guy and Ian Glendenning, each with their individual calendar of events for 2018 and onwards. Also available from this page, Ian Glendenning’s excellent monthly Astro Alert Newsletters, wherein a plethora of astronomical information, weblinks to amazing celestial photography, current observation data, events calendar and much more is assembled in an easily digestible form. Thank you, Ian, for this generous service.
Hilary Bryanston
ART CLASSES:
Mondays: 10 – 12 noon; Wednesdays: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Venue: Berllan Las Studios, Pontardawe; Cost £8.
Limited space – Please ring first: 01792 823444
Thursdays from 17th September – see POSTER: NOW £8
PONTARDAWE ARTS CENTRE EXHIBITION
The Blue Orchard Group
ART WORKSHOPS
All ages and abilities, in:
Drawing Techniques: Pencil, Charcoal, Oil Pastels, Soft Pastels, Ink
Painting Techniques: Watercolours, Gouache, Oils, Acrylics
3D Techniques: Stone carving, Wood carving, Ceramics, Mosaics
All aspects of drawing and painting are on offer, including work from still life, portraits, or landscape. Also ideas that are formed imaginatively can be developed. Different aspects of the History of Art will also be taught. 
All workshops are available for small groups (maximum 6 students) or individuals, at a time arranged to suit your needs. It is possible to book several days in a row or just one, or to come on a weekly basis. Lunch or bed and breakfast also available.
Location: Ynysmeudwy,Pontardawe. Tel. 01792 832444
SEE HILARY’S WEBSITE (www.hilarybryanston.co.uk) FOR FURTHER DETAILS, PRICES, AND HOW TO BOOK.
* Private Tuition – Time to suit: £20 per hour *
*Private Tuition – All day including lunch: £60*
* Bed and Breakfast: £35 Single, £50 Double*
Star Trails Over Waen Lleuci
IAN GLENDENNING
Astronomy and Photography Events
Please see current edition of AA Newsletter for up-to-date listing of events and classes, available by contacting Ian Glendenning at ian.glendenning@live.co.uk
Astronomy at Llangiwg Church
The Leonid Meteor Shower: Friday 17th Nov 2017 at 7:00 pm.
Stargazing in the event of good weather, talk and slide show if inclement. Soup and refreshments will be served for a donation of £5.
Llangiwg Church, Pontardawe, is a wonderful place to do astronomy enjoying a location of atmospheric beauty. The Ordnance Survey grid ref is SO 272 206 and for Sat Nav the postcode is SA8 4TP. It is adjacent to the 13th tee of the Pontardawe Golf Club, if that is any help! Roads to it are in a fairly poor state so please drive carefully. More advice on best route is given at www.llangiwg.com
AstroGothics Meetings 2017
AstroGothics, by Hilary Bryanston
AstroGothics: Series XVII is in the Hibbert Room at Craig-y-Nos Country Park, Fridays 7 pm to 9 pm. Sessions consist of an eclectic mix of astronomy news, open discussion, slideshows, documentaries and, when opportunity arises, stargazing. With a theme this term of The World’s Great Telescopes.
The cost is simply a £2 ‘drop in’ fee each night for everybody.
The course is suitable for new comers too, so if interested please contact me by email: ian.glendenning@live.co.uk
Pontarddulais 10 week Course: Observational Astronomy
Observational Astronomy. An exciting new course that covers the aspects of becoming an expert stargazer!
Topics covered include: observing the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. Recognising constellations. Observing comets, asteroids, meteors and other sky phenomena. Use of telescopes and other astronomical equipment. Simple photography techniques. Field trips to observe the sky will be weather dependent.
It is a 10 week course, each week a 2 h session, with a supporting slide show, running 7 pm to 9 pm, night on Mondays, in Canolfan Y Bont, Pontarddulais. The course starts Jan 15th.
Suitable for all and new members welcome. If interested contact me by email: ian.glendenning@live.co.uk
Cost: (only!) £40.
Earthshine
International Dark Sky Reserve
The Brecon Beacons National Park has become only the fifth destination in the world to be granted prestigious International Dark Sky status, making it Wales’ first International Dark Sky Reserve.
http://www.breconbeacons.org/ lists a multifarious range of activities throughout the year at a number of venues in the Park.
Llangiwg Star Trail by Ian Glendenning
Astronomy at Llangiwg Church
Llangiwg Church, beautiful and atmospheric – and none more so than at night! With its remote and splendid isolation atop the Gwrhyd, the church is an ideal and magical location for heavenly contemplation. One of the many and special activities at Llangiwg are now the stargazing and telescope observing sessions of celestial wonders when the weather permits and some astronomical slide shows when inclement. Recently an astronomy class was also held here.
Another activity that is taking place is astronomical photography. There have been several late night sessions to take ‘star trails’ and other shots around the church. One photograph, taken back in August 2009, Star Trails Over Llangiwg, was exhibited at the Welsh Assembly in October 2010. Another, Orion Aside Llangiwg Tower, appeared in an article detailing astro activities at the church in The Community Magazine February 2011. (Both of these appear here in the ‘Celestial’ collection’.)
Llangiwg Church is a remarkable project with much more besides astronomy taking place. There is a free monthly newsletter detailing the forthcoming events. Go to www.llangiwg.com to find out more.
Astro Alert
In addition to attending the events (or even if not) anyone with an interest in astronomy can receive my FREE monthly email newsletter Astro Alert (AA) which details what can be seen in the night sky. With much else besides: some of the highest resolution images taken from telescopes and spacecraft, articles on astronomy, photography and science, links to the best astronomical websites and some wonderful art and poetry. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, drop me an e-mail on ian.glendenning@live.co.uk .
The NOVEMBER 2017 issue of Astro Alert can be freely downloaded in this pdf file: AA#105 November 2017
Roy Guy
Friday, 2 February 2018
Going for the Line, by Roy Guy
The impressive rugby-inspired piece will be auctioned during the 2018 Six Nations tournament.
Roy Guy was moved to offer the painting for the care shown to his family members by the B5 Nephrology Unit, which treats patients suffering from Acute Kidney Injury and patients with chronic renal failure.
‘Renal replacement therapy’ may be in the form of dialysis – normally a 3-to-4 hour dialysis session three days a week – or a kidney transplant. The only renal transplant centre in Wales, University Hospital of Wales is also one of only eight transplant centres in the UK offering pancreas or combined kidney and pancreas transplants.
Donations to the unit means there is more money for ongoing research programmes, and allows healthcare professionals to buy additional equipment, over and above what the NHS can normally afford, enhancing the care provided by the service.
Roy has also been a long term supporter of the excellent work of Age Cymru Gwent.
Going for the Line
This incredible one-off painting is unique and irreplaceable. In oils on canvas, painted by Roy Guy, Going for the Line brings together four separate iconic Welsh rugby moments, showing Dan Biggar, Adam Jones, Leigh Halfpenny and Gethin Jenkins charging across the field at the Principality Stadium.
Sized at 5ft x 4ft, this imposing painting’s mosaic style is inspired by the artist’s childhood, and the patchwork quilts on his bed made by his grandmother.
There will never be another painting quite like this – a real statement artwork at home, in public spaces, for rugby lovers everywhere. And it could be yours!
For a chance to own this beautiful painting, email your bid and contact details to fundraising.cav@wales.nhs.uk, and we’ll enter your anonymous bid online on your behalf.
Click on the image to watch the unveiling of this painting at Newbridge, Wales, and a short interview with artist, Roy Guy.
Click on the image to watch the unveiling of this painting at Newbridge, Wales, and a short interview with artist, Roy Guy.
WINDOW ONTO WALES…WINDOW ONTO WALES…WINDOW ONTO WALES
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