Osi Rhys Osmond
Landscape and Inheritance / Tir a Threftadaeth
Artist Osi Rhys Osmond pays tribute to his family, friends and the former mining community of Wattsville with his forthcoming exhibition due to open at Rhondda Heritage Park on Saturday 3rd March.
This exhibition examines the contemporary and historic landscape around the former mining village in the lower Sirhowy Valley, where his father and mother were born and where his father, uncles and grandfathers on both sides worked as miners.
As an art student Osi Rhys Osmond resisted the vogue for a certain kind of image of the mining industry and sought to create something that spoke more about the eternal qualities of the landscape in which he found himself. The more sentimental view of the mining life that had become the accepted norm in the visual arts was something that he felt had been done and added little to any understanding of how that community lived, worked and socialised. The history of the place prior to the advent of mining was also something that had fascinated him: local places, the ruins of collapsed mountain farm houses; Ty Prince and Hafod Tudor Canol were among the names that could spur the imagination of a fanciful boy. Looking at old maps of the area and witnessing the rapidity of change once the mining industry was in decline also revealed the implacable mutability of the landscape, of our culture and our lives
For this show Osi Rhys Osmond has brought together recent paintings, drawings and photographs, some sound recordings and a selection of his early works, some from when he was a student and others made over the years as he revisited his old home. He had always been obsessed by the landscape in which he grew up and the pure abstract beauty of the changing colour of the bracken covered hills surrounding the valley that was perhaps the dominant factor in making him an artist. The exhibition comprises of large oil paintings on canvas, painted in the studio, as well as watercolours studies made on the spot, books, and mixed media drawings. Also included are large-scale drawings where he layers the historic, geological and social phenomena of the area with contemporary observations creating what he refers to as ‘graphic essays’. These drawings combine images and words; landscape and memory, facts and figures, friends and family among speculations on geology, social history and genealogy. They endeavour to establish a sense of time compressed, a concatenation of dense time reflected in a current moment; acting perhaps as a kind of visual psycho-geographic document.
The enormous, long drawn out period of geological activity that saw the laying down of the south Wales coalfield dwarfs the lives of the three generations who came, settled and mined the coal. The valleys are green, nature heals, but there remains a sense of loss, of bewilderment, trauma and perhaps abandonment. This exhibition is Osi Rhys Osmond’s tribute to his family; brother and sisters, parents and grandparents, his boyhood friends, the community that made him, and those who went before in bequeathing to him a mystery; a history and a wonder at our brief eternities and where and how we spend them.
The exhibitions continue until 22nd April. Rhondda Heritage Park is open from 9am-4.30pm Tuesday – Sunday. (Closed Mondays until Easter). Admission is free
The Painterly Quilt /
Anne Smith
14 January -26 February 2012
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Colourful quilts set to get blanket coverage!
Colourful creations by Pontypridd-based ‘art-quilt maker’ Anne Smith go on display at the Level One Gallery from 14th January.
Anne Smith was the first British artist to win the prestigious biennial Quilt National competition in the USA. Her quilt, Calon Lan, inspired by the old Welsh hymn was judged Best of Show in 2009 out of almost 1,000 entries from all over America and 13 other countries. The quilt has toured the USA for two years and has just arrived back from Ohio and will be included in the exhibition.
Anne’s interest in textiles started at school, where she was the only student to study embroidery. She recalls how: “A nun, Sister Bernadette, came in every week to teach me stitches and techniques. I learned the traditional methods of stitch, for example I made a priest’s vestment using ‘counted thread’ work and Hardanger embroidery”
Her interest has, over time, become a personal project called ‘The Painterly Quilt’, which involves a Fine Art approach to Craft. Her work is part planned, part improvised, attempting to combine the vitality and movement of abstract painting with the slow pace and craftsmanship of quilt making. She enjoys working in an abstract way because it suits her intuitive approach.
“I love to search the charity shops for kids' clothes with bright colours and patterns. Some of the garments are so beautiful that I hate to cut them up, but maintaining a collection of useful bits is a vital part of the process. If I was painting I could mix exact colours. Instead I dip into my great collection of recycled coloured and patterned fabrics”.
She has a great respect for the traditions and the craftsmanship of quilt making and at the same time admires the innovative directions that contemporary American art-quilt makers are moving in.
New Profile / Melissa Warren
Also on display from 14 January is a profile of work by textile artist and designer Melissa Warren who has lived and worked in The Rhondda Valley since 1990. Based at her workshop and gallery, Lemon Blues, in Pentre she is always looking for new ways to extend her practice and engage different audiences of all ages and types. She is constantly pursuing ideas to develop her passion for yarn and yarn manipulation in ways other than knitting. Her current collection, mostly inspired by landscapes, has been created using yarn wraps, a technique which she particularly find accessible. Several pieces of Melissa Warren’s outdoor textile pieces were displayed as part of the Inside Out sculptural exhibition at The Rhondda Heritage Park last summer.
Both exhibitions continue until 26th February.
Rhondda Heritage Park is open from 9am-4.30pm Tuesday – Sunday. (Closed Mondays until Easter). Admission is free.