September 1st 2006 sadly saw the passing of a huge talent; the painter Kyffin Williams, who died aged 88. Born May 9th 1918, in Llangefni, Anglesey, John Kyffin Williams attended Shrewsbury School, and was later articled to a firm of land agents in Pwllheli.

He went on to serve with the Royal Welch Fusiliers, but was invalided out in 1941 suffering from epilepsy. It was his doctor who suggested he take up art as a ‘harmless’ pursuit, a casual remark which was to colour Williams’s entire life.

Thought to have little talent at the outset of his studies at the Slade, Kyffin Williams was nevertheless awarded both the Slade Portrait Prize and the Robert Ross Leaving Scholarship. Having received a somewhat traditional art schooling, with a great emphasis on drawing, he became, in later life, exasperated with the current focus on ‘conceptual’ art. An outspoken critic of much of the contemporary art scene, including both practice and funding in his censure, he echoed the thoughts of many when condemning such events as the Turner Prize, and even some of the artwork winning prizes at recent National Eisteddfodau.

In 1973, Kyffin Williams returned to North Wales following retirement from teaching; “I have been lucky to have been born into such a land and . . . to have been given a life that has been long enough for me to put down my appreciation of it”. One of Wales’s most renowned painters, capturing with his trademark ruggedly-textured technique the very essence of the landscape and people with which he lived, his passion for the land and the people who lived on it are evident; his bold use of paint, in terms of both texture and colour, resonates with the landscape and the climate, and speaks eloquently of the often bleak beauty of the place where he was born, and died.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 8:38 am and is filed under Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.