Glenys Cour was born in 1924 in Fishguard, West Wales. From 1945 till 1948 she studied Fine Art at Cardiff College of Art (art skills: collage, paper-making, oil painting, watercolour, stained glass), where she trained with Ceri Richards. Thereafter, she taught painting at Swansea College of Art where she met her future husband, the late Ronald Cour, whom she married in 1949. She lives and has her studio in Mumbles, Swansea.
Artist's Statement: "I am a professional painter and designer, born in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, and trained at Cardiff College of Art. I have taught for many years in the departments of painting and stained glass at the Swansea Institute of Higher Education, and in the University of Wales, Swansea.
The inspiration for my images comes from my interest in the relics of ancient cultures. I find it for example in the mysterious marks and signs on walls, in fragments of carvings in Medieval Churches, and in Celtic standing stones.
My obsession with gold began in Greece, seeing the delicate gold artefacts from the time of Alexander the Great, which look as though they were made yesterday. I am fascinated by the fact that gold remains when all else is gone, and I am intoxicated by the lustre of golden surfaces. I make my own papers and stain them with oil paint, acrylic, gold pigments and gold leaf so that I can build up surfaces reminiscent of the
rich textures produced by age" (quoted, by kind permission of the artist, from an exhibition supplement to a mixed exhibition at Bruegge/Belgium, 12th October-10th December 2001).
"The Mabinogion too has intrigued me since my student days, and I have used the imagery over and over again in various media and with different treatments
In addition to this mainbody of my work, I have also been involved in design for festival posters (first prize for best poster by the British Arts Festival Association in 1989) and book covers as well as stained glass (artist-in-residence for the Painter in Glass exhibition at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea in 1992) and theatre design." (see Glenys Cour in 'Revelations')
Teaching Experience:
Early 1960s Glanmor School/Gower; 1963 part-time lecturer in the Fine Art & the Stained Glass Departments at the School of Art & Craft and College of Art in Swansea,
later the Institute of Higher Education. From the mid-1970s until 2000 she taught colour & visual research in the architectural glass department.
Awards: 1989 First Prize best poster for British Arts
Festival Association; 1992 Artist in Residence Glynn Vivian Gallery - the painter in glass
(commission for a stained glass panel); 2004 becomes an Honorary Fellow of the Swansea Institute
of Higher Education for her work as an artist; July 2006: MA Swanea University in recognition of her distinction as a visual artist and educator.
Commissions: post-card for Welsh Arts Council; murals for Trustee Savings Bank; 1988 programme cover design
for BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra tour; 1989 Dylan Thomas Society poster design for US tour; 1988-1993 Swansea Festival Poster design; 1993 & 1997 Poster design for Brecon Jazz festival;
1994/95 poster designs for Cardiff Festival, Poetry Wales, Swansea Literature Festival;
2001 print for Contemporary Art Society; 2001 Stain Glass Rose Window design, Old Grammar School Swansea.
International Links:
exhibitions abroad=1983 "Seven Swansea Artists" in Mannheim/Germany (mixed): 1994/5 "Contemporary Art from Wales" in Holland (mixed);
1997 Welsh group exhibition in Strasbourg/France; 2001 mixed exhibition in Brugges/Belgium; 2003 Welsh Group travelling exhib. to North America (mixed)
public collections abroad=Kunstalle Gallery Mannheim/Germany;
.. Glenys Cour
