Window onto Wales

Wendrich artHouse has the pleasure and privilege of displaying some of the paintings of Hilary Bryanston and Roy Guy, and the astro/landscape photography of Ian Glendenning: a glimpse through a window onto their unique perspectives.  Each of the artists lives in Wales.  Scroll down this page to see the profiles of each of the featured artists.

Hilary Bryanston

“I love Hilary’s work – her imagery reminds me of the soul’s impressions as it journeys through the Welsh landscape, passing from the concrete, visible universe into a fluid portal of magical potential.”    Harry Wendrich

The art of Hilary Bryanston falls loosely into four main catogories:-

• Painting
• Carvings in wood and stone
• Assemblages
• Ceramics and mosaics

“My understanding of art is that it takes you to a place that you have never been before.
Sometimes I paint the journey to the places, and sometimes I paint the places that I find.  These places may contain buildings or animals or people. At times the places are silent and sometimes they are full of sounds – musical sounds.  The places are not static either – they move, they breathe.  I make them tangible.”

See more of Hilary’s work at http://www.hilarybryanston.co.uk/

Ian Glendenning

“Ian has a unique eye for astro/landscape photography.  His images remind me of what I love about this beautiful land – its rugged wildness, as if man could never tame it; its beauty, and its magical undercurrent – beneath the canopy of the endless lights that pinpoint our place in the Universe.”    Harry Wendrich

I have a life-long love of the stars that has led to a passion for science and work as an astrophysicist. Living in Wales has communed a meeting place, for me personally, between the earth and sky with an appreciation of ‘God’s Own Country’ in the stars, stones and waterfalls that are all around us here.  Hence the two sections for my photographs ‘terrestrial’ and ‘celestial’, although some – especially those of ‘star trails’ – involve both.

In the future months I hope to develop and extend the astrophotography and also simultaneously visit, with camera, yet more of the beautiful ‘haunts’ of Wales and beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

Roy Guy

“I first met Roy in Art College and we have remained close friends ever since.  I have watched him become a Master in his unique field of portraiture, and agree with the sentiment that Roy Guy has become a national treasure.”  Harry Wendrich

What inspires me?  That is a dilemma that I find almost impossible to explain, but my main inspirations are:

• Literature
• Children
• Family and
• Wales. 

Each one is as important as the other.

I love to read, I read everything, it is something I do to relax.  I can put a book down and not think about it until I pick it up again.  It’s totally different to painting which can undermine your physical and mental wellbeing. (Too long to go into.)

Children inspire me:  I have nine children of my own, and my wife and I have been fostering for over twenty one years.  When I finish a painting I always ask the youngest what they think.  I honour their opinion because they can be brutally honest (The Emperors New Clothes) unlike the people who profess to know everything about Art. (Again too long to go into.)

Family needs no explanation.

Although most of my work is either based on a Welsh great, as in the painting of R. S. Thomas, or has a Welsh connection, like The Seeds of Time I believe they can also be seen as universal, in that their psychological and philosophical aspects can be applied to anyone no matter what nationality.  Do I get any inspiration from artists? Well, I admire many, both classical and modern, but I can honestly say that apart from technique none actually inspire me to paint.  I think that comes from a far superior internal authority.

So does the mind of a creative individual have to create because some inner force says it has to? I know I don’t like being controlled, I will take constructive criticism and advice from anyone but I hate it when some one tries to tell me what to do.  Yet funnily enough that determination manages to fall by the wayside when I try to rebel against my inner self. (That’s enough of that Roy.) 

People have asked me why I don’t sell my work, well there are many reasons, but I won’t bore you to death by going through all the ones I know about.

For instance, if I sold my work I would have to get involved in the market and paint for a living, and to have to get up every day and have to produce would be my interpretation of Hell.  In my mind I would be betraying my creative spirit, a selling of my soul to produce work that wouldn’t normally think of doing.  I paint what I want to so I don’t need to cow-down to the Art establishment and abide by its rules, which is something I have fought against for years.  

Every painting I produce is comparable to a child, it is an integral part of me, so rather than sell them out I try to find them a secure loving home. Either by giving them away to people I know will cherish them as their own, or, as in the case of paintings I’ve done of Welsh legends like Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton, Alexander Cordell etc, I get them displayed on permanent loan in the area’s where they belong.  For example, the Dylan Thomas painting is hanging in the house he grew up in, in Cwmdonkin.  Richard Burton is in Port Talbot and Alexander Cordell at the Cordell Museum in Blaenavon, therefore they can be viewed by anyone.  If I was to sell my work they would be stuck away in a strange house on view to a privileged few.  Having my work on display in public places around Wales gives me immense satisfaction.  Why am I like this, where have my opinions come from?  Well, I was born in the bedroom of my Nana’s house in Newbridge (a village situated in the Western Valleys of Wales), reared by a family of miners within a Socialist environment, so I naturally relate to the working class and the underdog.

My mother came out of Scottish stock and was overly proud of her ancestry, and my father’s family were English, so I’m definitely a Welsh mongrel.

So with this totally British pedigree why am I so preoccupied with painting pictures relevant to Wales?  I can’t tell you because I don’t really know. I can only say that giving my work away freely and without strings to all areas of Wales fulfils and satisfies an inner need to give something back to the country of my birth.

See more of Roy Guy’s artwork at his website: http://www.royguyartsoul.com

 

 

WINDOW ONTO WALES…WINDOW ONTO WALES…WINDOW ONTO WALES

Hosted by Wendrich artHouse