GWILYM PRICHARD
(1931 - 2015)
TRIBUTE EXHIBITION
G W I LY M P R I C H A R D ( 1 9 3 1 - 2 0 1 5 ) TRIBUTE EXHIBITION 14 - 31 October / Hydref 2015
ALL WORKS ARE FOR SALE
Prices on application
MARTIN TINNEY GALLERY WWW.ARTWALES.COM Published by Martin Tinney Gallery. Limited to 300 copies.
© The Estate of Gwilym Prichard and Martin Tinney Gallery.
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Gwilym Prichard was a very fine artist and a finer gentleman. In more than twenty years of dealing with him and his work, I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. Indeed, the nearest he came to such mischief was his gentle teasing of his beloved wife, the artist Claudia Williams, who writes so movingly about him overleaf. I first met Gwilym when he visited the gallery in 1994. Thereafter I arranged a visit to his studio in Rocheforten-Terre in Brittany, and soon after that began to exhibit both his and Claudia’s work. Happily, the work was an immediate success and many successful exhibitions followed. Indeed, Gwilym told me that the increased recognition for his and Claudia’s work resulting from these exhibitions was instrumental in their decision to return to live and work in Wales, and I was flattered and delighted to have played a part in that decision. Unusually for an artist of such standing, Gwilym did not have an ounce of ego. He was much admired by other artists including Ceri Richards, who said that ‘Gwilym painted the bones beneath the landscape’. He was often compared with Sir Kyffin Williams but there was a distinct difference in their work. Perhaps the distinguished art critic and writer Mel Gooding put it best when he used a musical analogy to describe Gwilym’s paintings as ‘rhythmic sinuous melodies’ compared to Kyffin’s ‘craggy tone poems’. Certainly Gwilym’s palette was more colourful, especially in the later paintings. This tribute exhibition features both mixed media works on paper from the artist’s extensive travels and some of his final oil paintings. It has been a privilege dealing with Gwilym and his wonderful work and all of us at both Martin Tinney Gallery and Oriel Tegfryn, and his many friends and collectors, will miss him terribly. Martin Tinney
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As I was married to Gwilym for over sixty years, it should be quite easy for me to write about our life together. But I may have a slightly different perspective on things, now a relatively short time after his death. At that time I really felt the light had gone out of my life. Now I see a kaleidoscope of images and events, mostly happy scenes involving the two of us. Or as a family when the children were younger. In fact, some of the earlier memories are often some of the happiest. I treasure fleeting memories of birthday parties or Christmas parties but it is ironic that Gwilym himself had no memories of family events, such as parties, before he met me. His youth was spent in his then favourite pursuit, fishing in the river Dwyfor at Llanystumdwy. Very early on when we’d just had Ceri and Ben, we “went on holiday” with a secondhand tent, and put it up in a field, just a few miles from where we lived! Camping holidays were very simple affairs, sleeping, as often as not, in the back of our VW van and the boys in the tent. Christmastime would find Gwilym anxiously trying to finish making or painting a special toy, a train, or trucks or something like that, and it had to be well finished off. Gwilym was not at all bothered by a few drops of rain, in fact he relished hearing rain drops on the tent. That’s a North Walian for you! He was a past master at making coffee for our breakfast when years later, family grown up, he would make some delicious coffee and with luck, a croissant to nourish us! I learnt from Gwilym to treasure the simple things in life; early mornings in summertime, birdsong, the first drops of rain after heat. One thing we never agreed upon was to read aloud or recite poems to each other - that, I am really sorry about. Maybe because he would have preferred them in his mother tongue? I shall never know. I do regret not trying harder to master Welsh. He did enjoy putting on funny hats and making faces to amuse small children, even though he much disliked wearing a hat in the ordinary way for every day. He inspired me by his commitment to work and encouraged me to be bold. No tentative little marks for him. My early efforts were concerned with the importance of good composition and drawing. He never wanted expensive holidays and to start with we could not afford them anyway! He was always content with a simple way of life. But he always put me first and he was a lovely man. Claudia Williams
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TWO HOUSES Y PARROG oil on panel 2012 20 x 27cm
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ST. RÉMY DE PROVENCE gouache c.1985 31 x 39cm
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SNOWDON oil on canvas 2011 38 x 46cm
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TREES, LATE AFTERNOON mixed media c.1985 28 x 38cm
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RIPE FOR CONVERSION oil on panel 2012 16 x 23cm
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TAN Y GRISIAU mixed media c.1996 57 x 77cm
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ARENIG I oil on canvas 2014 38 x 55cm
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PRÈS DE LODÈVE mixed media c.1985 29 x 38cm
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T킷 EITHIN oil on canvas 2010 54 x 72cm
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ORCHARD, BRITTANY mixed media c.1997 15 x 20cm
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RESTING oil on canvas 2008 50 x 61cm
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LLANBERIS mixed media c.1996 56 x 76cm
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CEIBWR BAY AND THRIFT oil on canvas 2012 73 x 100cm
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LES ALPILLES mixed media c.1985 58 x 76cm
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NEAR THE PRESELIS oil on panel 2013 23 x 33cm
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ST RÉMY mixed media c.1985 26 x 34cm
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IT’S OUR LAST DAY oil on canvas 2012 50 x 100cm
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RED ROOF, PROVENCE mixed media c.1985 28 x 32cm
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MAE’N BRYD SYMUD / IT’S TIME TO MOVE oil on canvas 2010 54 x 64cm
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SANTORINI II mixed media 1985 28 x 38cm
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THORN TREE oil on panel 2012 31 x 19cm
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PROVENCE I mixed media c.1985 28 x 38cm
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SNOWDONIA, AUTUMN oil on canvas 2008 60 x 92cm
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THE RIVALS, CAERNARFONSHIRE watercolour c.1986 19 x 38cm
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SOLFACH, YNYS ENLLI oil on canvas 2008 61 x 81cm
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NORTH WALES VILLAGE mixed media c.1996 78 x 53cm
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Y PARROG, NEWPORT oil on canvas 2009 38 x 55cm
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CNICHT IN A STORM mixed media c.1996 53 x 39cm
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ARENIG II oil on canvas 2014 38 x 55cm
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PORTUGAL mixed media c.1985 19 x 38cm
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PENMON oil on canvas 2008 60 x 73cm
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COTTAGES, TAN Y GRISIAU mixed media c.1996 58 x 76cm
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Y GOLEUDY, YNYS ENLLI / LIGHTHOUSE, BARDSEY ISLAND oil on canvas 2010 100 x 81cm
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ARENIG III oil on canvas 2014 33 x 46cm
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MOUSTOIR-AC, VILLAGE IN BRITTANY mixed media c.1997 21 x 15cm
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MYNYDD PARYS oil on canvas 2010 30 x 60cm
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AR DRAWS Y FENAI oil on canvas 2010 33 x 46cm
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NEAR ST. RÉMY DE PROVENCE mixed media c.1985 20 x 19cm
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SKRINKLE BAY oil on canvas 2008 19 x 27cm
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BOAT oil on panel 2012 27 x 20cm
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NEAR PORTHMADOG mixed media c.1986 14 x 19cm
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GAZING AT THE MOON oil on linen 2013 46 x 55cm
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GOING SKETCHING oil on canvas 2013 54 x 65cm
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G W I L Y M P R I C H A R D RCA (1931 – 2015) Selected Exhibitions 2015 2015 2013 2013 2011 2011 2009 2007 2006 2005 2003 2002 2001 1999 1997 1997 1996 1995 1995 1995 1995 1994 1994 1994 1993
Tribute Exhibition, Martin Tinney Gallery Works on Paper, Martin Tinney Gallery Oriel Tegfryn Gallery, Menai Bridge with Claudia Williams A Lifetime’s Gazing, Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff 80th Birthday Exhibition, Oriel Tegfryn, Menai Bridge 80th Birthday Exhibition, Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff A Welsh Connection, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Tenby Museum and Art Gallery Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Galerie Moyen-Avenard, Nantes Galerie Saphir, Dinard and Paris Galerie Saphir, Dinard and Paris Galerie Moyen-Avenard, Nantes Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey Attic Gallery, Swansea Kunsthandel, Kooring, Amsterdam Espace Gauguin, Pont Aven Galerie Saphir, Dinard and Paris National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 94
Public Collections Arts Council of Wales Contemporary Arts Society of Wales Government Art Collection Lincoln College, Oxford National Library of Wales Nuffield Foundation University of Wales, Aberystwyth University of Wales, Bangor Private Collections worldwide Awards Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales French Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters, Silver Medal
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