Malcolm Parr was one of the original core members of a group of Artists and Writers etc who met at the Westbourne Hotel in Swansea every Tuesday evening without fail . We talked of art and poetry and putting Wales on the map of the World, exhibitions were organised in Prague and the Czech Republic, Bruges, and Swansea, but  the last one was at the Queens Hall Gallery in Narberth. My last trip with Malcolm, Keith Bayliss and Jeff Towns, was to London, to celebrate the life  of Alfred Janes at the Royal Institution, but first it was to Malcolm’s favourite seller bar for a glass of candle lit dry sherry. Many will remember his readings at the Dylan Thomas Centre, packed with his wit and humour. At his wake at the No Sign Bar, poems were read by some of his fellow poets, David Greenslade, David Woolley and David Thomas, January 2020.

Bernard Mitchell

A day return on the train from Swansea to Temple Meads, was an excuse to visit for the first time The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol, and what a treat it was. I could not help but photograph this elegant building, how galleries used to look, but with a modern twist.

I had travelled to see ‘Refuge and Renewal’, curated by Peter Wakelin. The most interesting exhibition I have seen this year and certainly my book of the year. Peter Wakelin has used his wealth of knowledge to share with us the neglected history of the refugee artists who where given shelter in Britain and in particular Wales, in the periods during and after the First and Second world War, and the Russian occupation of the Eastern European Countries.

Of special interest to me, Peter talked of a painting by Josef Herman, of his family home in Warsaw, soon after he had learned of their death. Josef, sat at his easel, mother washing the cloths, father cobbling and his grand father at prayer (Peter’s words) What struck me were the colours just brown, blue and white, such emotion, one of Josef’s  finest pictures.

After Bristol, the exhibition went to MOMA Wales, in Machynlleth, however the gallery closed due to the tragic Corvid 19 virus epidemic, but  all is not lost we have the book and Culture Colony, Wales made a film of Peter’s talk at the RWA, which you can see on their website

Bernard Mitchell January 2020.

You could say that it was a Surreal Event at the Sennedd in November 2019.

Artist John Welson from Fishguard in Pembrokeshire and George Ostafi, the Romanian Surrealist who sadly passed away before the exhibition. In the picture are John Welson, left, and the Welsh Surrealist poet David Greenslade, wrote a poem as a tribute to George, in the background Artist Ivor Davies. 

Bernard Mitchell

Bronwen Colquhoun Senior Curator of Photography has not just achieved one exhibition, but has created three galleries full of photographs, sadly cut  short by the arrival of Corvid 19. This must be a first for the National, things were looking good when we had one designated gallery to the photographers art.

Martin Parr in Wales, August Sander and Industrial Visions by Bern and Hilla Becher. We arrived in time to hear Bronwen Colquhoun’s talk on the Martin Parr in Wales.

Martin Parr is based in Bristol, but now travels to a holiday home in Tenby, just the place for a man who excels in beach photography. Two things were apparent, the miners in the pithead baths, have been a subject of photographers from the days of tin baths in the kitchen and the display of still life photographs of food, neglected to show the fine cuisine and local produce that make up the Principality today.

Industrial Visions, showed the dedicated vision of Bern and Hilla Becher to document the Winding Towers of the coal mines which were part of the  every village in the South Wales Valleys. Each one of a slightly different construction, now saved for posterity, after the devastation of the demolition carried out a plan destroy the Coal Industry by Margaret Thatcher and her government.

Sadly time passes and we could not give justice to August Sander.

Bernard Mitchell

Newport Museum and Art Gallery. September 2019.

They were hanging the exhibition the day before it opened. So I took the opportunity to meet and Photograph Ron McCormick before the crowds made it impossible, and he kindly gave me the time in his  busy schedule.

Ron McCormick  was born in Liverpool, and first studied art at The Liverpool College of Art and The Royal Academy Schools, London, before switching  to photography. After a long career in photography he came to the University of Wales College Newport as Senior Lecturer in Documentary Photography with the founder of the first degree course David Hurn, in 1966. I wish now that I had waited a year, because I started a general course in Photography at the Berkshire College of Art in Reading in 1965.

Bernard Mitchell 2020

www.ffoton.wales

A Centenary Symposium to celebrate the birthday of Emyr Humphreys, was organised by Prof Kirsti Bohata, at Swansea University, on the 13^th April 2019.

One of the greatest Welsh Writers. Emyr Humphreys was born in Prestatyn on the 15^th of April 1919, this symposium was organised to honour his literary and cultural legacy. Here are some of the great and the good who were present.

Sadly Emyr Humphreys died on 30th of september 2020 aged 101. Novelist, Poet and Dramatist. He is photographed here at his home in Llanfair PG, circa 1998.

Introduced by Christine Kinsey, Bernard Mitchell gave a talk about his new book Pieces of  a Jigsaw, published by Parthian Books at the Osi Gallery, Llansteffan on Friday 8^th June 2018.  The exhibition will be available throughout the festival and includes images of Osi Rhys Osmond, R.S.Thomas, John Petts, Kusha Petts, Raymond Garlick, Mererid Hopwood, Christine Kinsey, Peter Jones and Sylvia Griffiths-Jones.

Beth Allender

Images by Beth Allender

A visit to a Rhymney Valley terrace, a small nook of a Welsh mining village, we meet Tracey Moberly, multidisciplinary artist. Given Ms Moberly’s latest intended artistic excursion into “power”, with Heaven 17’s Martin Ware and artist Sarah Hopkins, and her passion of heritage, we make our way to the obvious place for a photoshoot – the former colliery at Penallta.

The colliery near Hengoed is formerly South Wales’ deepest coalfield; its Grade 2 buildings grand and surprisingly ornate, despite their state of dereliction. The headgear of the two shafts are proposed to be part of a pioneering housing development scheme. The site is breath-taking. You can almost inhale the past.

Tracey is warm and humble; ballsy and mischievous. These are traits that certainly come through in her work. She is in tune with the past, whilst embracing the future. She is an activist, a lecturer and artist. She has been selected as artist is residence for an upcoming expedition to the Arctic Pole.

Steve Allender

Maurice Sheppard photographed in his studio and home in Haverfordwest. Maurice was the first Welsh president of The Royal Watercolour Society.