ART
Llangwm is blessed with some outstanding artists who have kindly agreed to share their work with us at Llangwm Village Hall and will be happy to talk visitors through their techniques, inspirations and sell their work.
The Village Hall will be open on all three days of the festival.
There will be craft in St Jerome's church between 10 and 4 on Friday 9 August and Saturday 10 August.
Below you can see links to some of Llangwm's artists with links to their sites.
Graham Brace
Biography
I count myself as being very fortunate to live and work in an estuary-side village in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. For an artist like me with a passion for ‘waterscapes’ there is nowhere better. There is an infinite wealth of inspiration right on my doorstep much of which I will never have the time to do justice to. I work in a mixture of media that includes soft pastel, gouache, watercolour and marker but the medium which predominates is coloured pencil. Greatly influenced by my background as a graphic designer and illustrator, my work is precise and representational and coloured pencils allow me to achieve a high degree of detail. I am a founder member of the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) which was established in 2001 to promote excellence in coloured pencils and to endeavour to establish it as a credible fine art medium, recognised by the art establishment. I am fortunate to be regarded as one of the leading exponents of this medium related to landscape and seascape art and my work and technique has featured in several leading art publications including ‘Artist & Illustrator’, ‘The Artist’ and France’s ‘Pratiques Des Arts’ as well as in instructional books and websites. I am increasingly drawn to subjects within the wider landscape/seascape…small corners that often go unnoticed by the passer-by. I am particularly interested in natural textures and forms and subtle natural colours. I love the way that nature, with the aid of weather, tide, time and natural growth embellishes, arranges and juxtaposes objects within the landscape, sometimes giving the appearance of contrived design…and often producing quite abstract forms. I love to draw water in its many moods and forms. It is difficult to portray accurately and it gives me a great sense of achievement when I succeed in this. I work from a combination of my own photographic reference, notes and careful observation. All this is blended with dash of artistic license to make a picture work. Contact details: Telephone: 01437 891580 Email: grahambrace@btinternet.com Website: www.grahambrace.com
Jenny Ambler
Biography
Strictly an amateur with no formal training I began taking photographs in the days of manual slr film cameras. Exposure was calculated using a seperate light meter, Scope for enhancement and post pro-duction processing was complex and very limited. While many purists bemoaned the advent of the digital age and ‘dumbing down’ of the technical skills,I loved it - an opportunity to explore the artis-tic content of an image rather than the process to achieve it. I dabbled in many styles - from abstract to angst but today my photos are unapologetically ‘chocolate box’. Just capturing moments in time in our every changing and stunningly beautiful surroundings.
Gareth Jones
Biography
Gareth is a member of an old Llangwm family and has lived in the village for most of his life. He was a self-employed plumber. His retirement has enabled him to indulge in his lifelong passion for art. He is an accomplished wildlife artist but recently he has been experimenting with landscapes rendered in acrylics. In addition, a recent interest in music and learning to play guitar has resulted in Gareth diversifying into building ‘cigar box’ electric guitars and speaker/amplifiers to which he is applying his artistic talents by embellishing them with striking ‘pop-art’ and fantasy images. A selection of Gareth’s numerous artistic endeavours will be on show in the exhibition.
Sian Jones
Biography
The view from the studio window goes down the garden to the estuary beyond. It changes as the light moves from east to west, shadows lengthening and shortening. Details come into focus and fade as the light changes, sharpening and then softening, blurring the boundaries as new shapes emerge. Out of this familiarity comes a deeper understanding and emotional attachment to nature - engendering the feelings and responses that inspire me to paint. Working with mixed media the process is a combination of adding and subtracting layers of paint, collage or ink. Like thinking aloud, the mark making leaves a trace of what has gone before. Often what seems like an obstacle becomes a new idea. The challenge for me is trying to maintain just the right amount of control without losing spontaneity.
Steve Richards
Biography
Steve Richards. I moved to Llangwm in 1999 with my wife and our two children. I have been retired since 2012 and then worked part-time for a few years as the caretaker for our local school. I have been a keen amateur photographer since my youth. However, I recently sold all my camera gear in order to explore ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY! I used to live near the Gower peninsula and loved looking at the stars on warm summer nights. Back then, I could not afford the sort of equipment necessary to photograph the night sky. Llangwm is to this day blessed with very little light pollution. So with great patience from my wife (not more money!) I have invested in some equipment to take pictures of the night sky. I started taking deep sky pictures around two years ago I was encouraged by my friend Bill Maxwell who is also succeeding in producing some fine deep sky images (Two of his pictures are included in my display) It is very challenging trying to obtain these pictures both from a technical standpoint and waiting for favourable weather. Bill and I have had to master running telescopes and small computers remotely. The goal is to obtain a large number (sometimes in excess of 100) of short (3Min) exposures of an object whilst maintaining it’s position in the telescope. The rotation of the earth makes this a real challenge. The pictures are then stacked together and processed to produce the final image. We are both members of Prescelli Astronomy Group which meets on the first Tuesday of the month in Letterston Village Hall.
Neil Sandford
Biography
I am a retired Superintendent Radiographer with a passion for DIY, especially woodwork. Kim and I came to the village in 2006 when I got a job at Withybush Hospital. We quickly settled in to village life. After working for 11 years, it was time to retire. My retirement present to me was a wood turning lathe. I did some wood turning for my O'level woodwork but nothing thereafter, but always had the ambition. I started turning in 2018 when I finally got my tiny workshop I enjoy recycling wood, from any source, old pianos, fireplaces or kitchen worktops as well as gifts of tree cuttings. I make bowls and plates etc and small items like keyring and coffee spoons as well as pens and fountain pens and Christmas decorations . Some years ago I made a batch of buttons from a friend's holly tree which my wife used on her long loom scarves, a combined effort for a village craft fair. I am a member of Pembrokeshire Wood turner's and have learned a lot from the experts, I hope to continue learning and turning and creating for the foreseeable future.