{"id":316,"date":"2011-11-04T16:07:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T16:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/?page_id=316"},"modified":"2018-02-09T23:05:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T23:05:54","slug":"roy-guy-his-own-words","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/roy-guy-his-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy Guy: His Own Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small selection of Roy Guy’s paintings with written accompaniments, offering a deeper insight to both the images and the artist.\u00a0 Click final image for a short interview and unveiling of recent painting.
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\"\"<\/a>Catch the Moon<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

(Oils on canvas, measuring around 3ft x 2ft)<\/span><\/p>\n

When my wife and I first met I said I\u2019d give her the moon: in this painting I\u2019m fulfilling that promise.\u00a0 The hands that form the majority of the tree belong to our children, the trunk is my arm and the hand catching the moon belongs to my wife.<\/span><\/p>\n

The five figures around the base of the tree are our primitive ancestors; they are our soil from which we\u2019ve grown.\u00a0 It is a genetic symbol — if all our DNA was put together it could possibly stretch as far as the moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a> Seeds of Time<\/span><\/h3>\n

This painting came out of a poem I had published a long time ago called The Seeds of Time, but it was the title that gave me the inspiration not the actual words. Its\u00a0an \u00a0interpretation of the state of\u00a0the Welsh — its\u00a0culture and its language\u00a0\u00a0as I see it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the man in the foreground is a miner who has just lost his job, he could be\u00a0me or anyone else who feels the same way.\u00a0 He has a\u00a0red helmet ( The Red Dragon of Wales) on his knee — look closely and you can see it cracking like an egg under the strain; he’s worrying about the future of himself and his\u00a0family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Floating through the painting are three Dandelion Heads, we used to use them as clocks and blow the seeds away: “One-o-clock, Two-o-clock, Three-o-clock.”\u00a0 Inside the heads are the faces of my three youngest daughters: they are my\u00a0 Seeds of Time — they are the future I worry about…as they scatter around Wales will they land on fertile ground?\u00a0 The mountain in the background is the past — slag tips created out of\u00a0colliery waste\u00a0shaped into the form of\u00a0a \u00a0female.\u00a0 It is\u00a0Mother Nature dragged out of a hole in the ground, or as the writer Alexander Cordell saw it\u00a0in his book a ‘Rape of a Fair Country.’ <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> “What Immortal Hand or Eye\u00a0could Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry.”<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

(The title is in Welsh on the painting.)<\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0oil painting on canvas measuring about 6ft 6inches x\u00a04ft 10inches is now hanging\u00a0at the Welsh Language Centre in Denbigh and came about after three months of research into the Welsh poet’s life and works.<\/span><\/p>\n

R. S. Thomas was a complicated individual,\u00a0a reverend of the Anglican Church in Wales.\u00a0 However, although Welsh through and through, he was brought up speaking\u00a0English\u00a0 (“Poison,” he called it.)\u00a0 That’s the reason for the title of the painting\u00a0being in Welsh — it is\u00a0in honour of his dedication to his Mother Tongue, because I believe he would have preferred it that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The title itself is a direct quote from\u00a0William Blake’s\u00a0The Tiger<\/em>, a\u00a0poet\/ artist whom R. S. Thomas greatly admired.\u00a0 This quote sums up the\u00a0the entire painting.\u00a0 Thomas was, by all accounts, an awkward individual.\u00a0 Some who had first hand knowledge of his personality may have said he was\u00a0fearful, but if you read into\u00a0his works you may see another side creeping in, his doubt, and this is what this picture is all about.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the foreground the poet looks sideways — he looks\u00a0angry, fearful, but being fearful and looking fearful is two different things.\u00a0 Behind him are the shattered pinnacles of Castell y Gwynt (Castle of the Winds) on Glyder Fawr, Snowdonia, a place which I’m sure he would have come across\u00a0on his many birdwatching travels.\u00a0 On top of\u00a0 Castell y Gwynt\u00a0the cross of Jesus reaches into the sky, while the rocks it stands upon\u00a0form\u00a0the profile of a mans face.\u00a0 This man is so special to the poet R. S. Thomas:\u00a0 he is the peasant Iago Prytherch, a man who “Endures like a tree.” Look for him — you’ll find him in many of his poems.\u00a0 The\u00a0poet in the painting is fearful — fearful because he doubted himself and his beliefs.\u00a0 Were the peasants he\u00a0preached to in his church\u00a0akin to\u00a0Iago,\u00a0were they closer to\u00a0 God than\u00a0himself\u00a0because they worked the land so religiously, scraping a pittance until they died,\u00a0so\u00a0immersed in\u00a0the soil that\u00a0they seemed\u00a0part of it, part of creation itself?<\/span><\/p>\n

The bird in the painting is a Red Kite — up until recently the only place you would find one was North Wales.\u00a0 R. S. Thomas was an avid bird-watcher who helped to set up bird sanctuaries across\u00a0Wales.\u00a0 Maybe he was one of the reasons the Red Kite survived (Who knows?) The\u00a0reason for including the bird in this painting is twofold.\u00a0 Firstly, it is comparable to the fate of the\u00a0Welsh Language — with the help of certain dedicated individuals the Kite began to flourish again: will the language do the same?<\/span><\/p>\n

But the main reason it has been included is\u00a0because it is a\u00a0tribute to one of our greatest ever poets,\u00a0R. S. Thomas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Peasant<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
by R. S. Thomas<\/span><\/div>\n
Iago Prytherch his name, though, be it allowed,<\/span><\/strong>
\nJust an ordinary man of the bald Welsh hills,<\/span><\/strong>
\nWho pens a few sheep in a gap of cloud.<\/span><\/strong>
\nDocking mangels, chipping the green skin<\/span><\/strong>
\nFrom the yellow bones with a half-witted grin<\/span><\/strong>
\nOf satisfaction, or churning the crude earth<\/span><\/strong>
\nTo a stiff sea of clods that glint in the wind\u2014<\/span><\/strong>
\nSo are his days spent, his spittled mirth<\/span><\/strong>
\nRarer than the sun that cracks the cheeks<\/span><\/strong>
\nOf the gaunt sky perhaps once in a week.<\/span><\/strong>
\nAnd then at night see him fixed in his chair<\/span><\/strong>
\nMotionless, except when he leans to gob in the fire.<\/span><\/strong>
\nThere is something frightening in the vacancy of his mind.<\/span><\/strong>
\nHis clothes, sour with years of sweat<\/span><\/strong>
\nAnd animal contact, shock the refined,<\/span><\/strong>
\nBut affected, sense with their stark naturalness.<\/span><\/strong>
\nYet this is your prototype, who, season by season<\/span><\/strong>
\nAgainst siege of rain and the wind’s attrition,<\/span><\/strong>
\nPreserves his stock, an impregnable fortress<\/span><\/strong>
\nNot to be stormed, even in death’s confusion.<\/span><\/strong>
\nRemember him, then, for he, too, is a winner of wars,<\/span><\/strong>
\nEnduring like a tree under the curious stars.<\/span><\/strong>
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Cofiwch Tryweryn (Remember Tryweryn) & Saunders Lewis<\/span><\/h3>\n
This oil painting on canvas measuring 3ftx 2ft is on permanent display at the \u2018Tym- y- Nant Theatre’ in Denbigh, North Wales.<\/span><\/h5>\n

This picture portrays two Welsh icons:\u00a0 Saunders Lewis and Llyn Celyn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saunders Lewis ( 15 October 1893 – 1 September 1985) was a Welsh poet, dramatist, historian,and\u00a0 literary critic. Also a political activist, he was a founder of the Welsh National Party which later became known as Plaid Cymru.\u00a0 Lewis is usually acknowledged to have been among the most prominent figures of twentieth-century Welsh-language literature.\u00a0 He was a 1970 Nobel nominee for literature, and in 2005 was voted 10th as Wales’ ‘greatest-ever person’ in a BBC Wales poll.<\/span><\/p>\n

Capel Celyn was a rural community ithe Afon Tryweryn valley in North Wales.\u00a0 The village and other parts of the valley were flooded to create the reservoir in the painting called Llyn Celyn (otherwise known as Tryweryn Reservoir) in order to supply Liverpool and The Wirral with water for industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that time Capel Celyn was one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities, so its flooding created a lot of controversy.\u00a0 When the valley was flooded in 1965, the village and its buildings, including the post office, the school, and a chapel with cemetery, were all lost. Twelve houses and farms were drowned, and 48 people of the 67 who lived in the valley lost their homes — in total some 800 acres were submerged by the waters of Llyn Celyn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saunders Lewis was born Wallasey Liverpool, the same city behind the demise of Capel Celyn (In 2005 Liverpool formerly apologised for the flooding.)\u00a0 When I came across the tale of Capel Celyn it seemed to fit in with what I wanted to portray.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saunders Lewis co-founded the National Party of Wales in 1925 and Capel Celyn was flooded in 1965, but although there\u2019s a different time frame they both affect each other because the flooding caused so much controversy that it pushed up the membership of Plaid Cymru, which would have had a significant role in the creation of the Welsh Assembly, the major political aim of Lewis.\u00a0 Lewis is usually acknowledged to have been among the most prominent figures of twentieth-century Welsh-language literature — in this painting Capel Celyn has become a stage, its drama unfolding like one of his plays.\u00a0 On the bottom left of the painting stands a solitary figure — he is a Quaker from the seventeenth century, one of many who used to worship in Capel Celyn at a farmstead called HAFOD FADOG.\u00a0 He is lamenting the loss of the village and his fellow Quakers buried just behind the wall.\u00a0\u00a0 So Cofiwch Dryweryn and Saunders Lewis<\/em> because although they are part of our history, they have helped form our future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Joe & Sam<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

(Oils on canvas measuring about 3ft x 2ft)<\/span><\/p>\n

This painting is in Joe’s house, being looked after by his wife Gwen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe died a few years ago — he was a very good friend of mine and he loved his dog Sam.\u00a0 Joe was a \u2018Desert Rat,\u2019 a sergeant in the Second World War.\u00a0 In the window is a reflection of his past, where he\u2019s on horseback dragging a cannon through the desert.\u00a0 His wife Gwen, an army nurse, is also there in her uniform.\u00a0 Joe was a religious individual:\u00a0 in his hands he holds the Bible, and looking on is his faithful dog Sam.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Closing Cwm<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Closing Cwm<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Closing Cwm is an oil painting on a hessian screen I found in a skip, it\u00a0measures 2ft 4inches by 5ft 6inches.<\/span><\/p>\n

The title really says it all — the man has just been made redundant from the Cwm Collery near Ebbw Vale, which is the top end of the Western Valleys in Wales.\u00a0 He is distraught:\u00a0 his wife is above him, arm resting on a wall, her sadness\u00a0empathising his distress.<\/span><\/p>\n

I find this painting could be a reflection of anyone, of any country, so in reality it should be shown without an explanation — let the\u00a0spectators make up their own minds.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“The Row of Terraced Houses Hung Like a Necklace Round The Black Tart\u2019s Neck”<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

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(Oils on Calico, measuring around 2ft x 18inches)<\/span><\/h5>\n

A book dealer came to me and asked me to do a painting<\/span> based on a quote he\u2019d found: “The Row of Terraced Houses Hung Like a Necklace Round The Black Tart\u2019s Neck.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The ‘Black Tart’ I saw as a mountain of coal waste\u00a0 (similar to the one behind our house when I was growing up), hence the female form in the background.\u00a0 The terraced houses that that you can see coming from her neck to the village in the foreground are similar to the street my Nana used to live in. The book dealer was an avid Dylan Thomas fan, so I\u2019ve put the Welsh poet underneath the light at the end of the street walking towards us.\u00a0 When I gave him the painting he said: \u201cThat\u2019s just how I saw it.\u201d This is the only painting of mine that I\u2019ve sold, not for money, but for some books I needed for my Degree, and I\u2019ve always regretted it.\u00a0 (It’s a long story.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Mari Llwyd<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Mari Lwyd<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

This very large oil painting on canvas has been hanging in Newport Central Library for over ten years and measures about 8ft x 6ft.<\/span><\/p>\n

I became interested in history of the Mari Lwyd when reading Robert Grave\u2019s book\u00a0 \u2018The White Goddess\u2019<\/em> and began researching into its background.\u00a0 Then when I read \u2018The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd<\/em>\u2019 by the Welsh poet Vernon Watkins it inspired me to take it further.\u00a0 Slowly but surely an image started to form in my mind, not of the skeleton remains of a horse’s head being put onto a pole and taken from door to door by living people, but the opposite —\u00a0 of a fearful living \u2018Nightmare\u2019\u00a0with a retinue of human skeletons, attending pirates from Davey\u2019s locker.<\/span><\/p>\n

The original Mari Lwyd came out of the sea or the entrance of a castle — in this picture it is emerging from the latter.\u00a0 This fearful mare doesn\u2019t take your food, it is only interested in your soul — the bag on the right being carried by one of the skeletons is used to carry them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The red coated skeleton just behind the mare seems to be the leader of the buccaneers and is holding a metronome made from the wood of the Taranis Wheel.\u00a0 It is engraved with runic writing that means \u2019The Horse of Frost\u2019 (taken from the prologue of Vernon Watkins\u2019s Ballad of the Mari Lwyd<\/em>.)\u00a0 From the top of the metronome flutter some coloured ribbons, as if dancing to its tune\u00a0 (Morris\u00a0dancing).\u00a0\u00a0 It is used as a rhythmic timing device for when they catch their victims — if you can\u2019t come up with a rhythm to complement the one they\u2019ve been given then they take you and your soul back with them to Hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hovering in front of them is a Merlin Hawk (symbolising the magician).\u00a0 He is on this side of the small wall that one of the skeletons has just started over.\u00a0 He represents the good:\u00a0 can he use his magic to stop their advance; will he succeed?<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Painting<\/a><\/p>\n

Click on the image to watch a youtube video of the unveiling of this painting, and short interview with Roy Guy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Painting to commemorate 1878 Abercarn disaster, by Roy Guy<\/p>\n

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Your chance to own ‘Going for the Line’<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Friday, 2 February 2018<\/div>\n
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Roy Guy, a renowned Gwent artist whose paintings are displayed in iconic buildings throughout Wales, has generously donated his latest painting to support Age Cymru Gwent and the B5 Nephrology (Kidney) Unit at University Hospital of Wales. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The impressive rugby-inspired piece will be auctioned during the 2018 Six Nations tournament.\u00a0\"Going<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0 from Acute Kidney Injury and patients with chronic renal failure.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2018Renal replacement therapy\u2019 may be in the form of dialysis \u2013 normally a 3-to-4 hour dialysis session three days a week \u2013 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.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Roy has also been a long term supporter of the excellent work of Age Cymru Gwent.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Going for the Line<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
This incredible one-off painting is unique and irreplaceable. In oils on canvas, painted by Roy Guy, Going for the Line<\/strong> 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.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Sized at 5ft x 4ft, this imposing painting\u2019s mosaic style is inspired by the artist\u2019s childhood, and the patchwork quilts on his bed made by his grandmother.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
There will never be another painting quite like this \u2013 a real statement artwork at home, in public spaces, for rugby lovers everywhere. And it could be yours!<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
For a chance to own this beautiful painting, email your bid and contact details to <\/span>fundraising.cav@wales.nhs.uk<\/a>, and we\u2019ll enter your anonymous bid online on your behalf.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
The auction closes at 17.30 on Saturday 17th<\/sup> March 2018 , just after the beginning of the Wales v France match. The winning bidder will be notified at half time.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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WINDOW ONTO WALES\u2026WINDOW ONTO WALES\u2026WINDOW ONTO WALES<\/span><\/h4>\n

Hosted by Wendrich artHouse<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A small selection of Roy Guy’s paintings with written accompaniments, offering a deeper insight to both the images and the artist.\u00a0 Click final image for a short interview and unveiling of recent painting. Catch the Moon (Oils on canvas, measuring around 3ft x 2ft) When my wife and I first met I said I\u2019d give her the moon: in this painting I\u2019m fulfilling that promise.\u00a0 The hands that form the majority of the tree belong to our children, the trunk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1033,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/316\/revisions\/1033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendricharthouse.com\/wow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}