********** .... **********

photo by Bernard Mitchell
. Gareth Parry

"On the Way Up", 2005, lithograph, 56x64cm ,

"Going for a Walk", 2005, oil on canvas, 48x58cm.

"Is it him, do you think?", 2006, oil on canvas, 50x60cm

Gareth was born in 1951 at Blaenau Ffestiniog and has lived for most of his life in the nearby village of Llan Ffestiniog. For a while he studied at the Manchester School of Art, but returned home to work in the local slate quarry for two years. Thereafter, he took up art again and established himeself as a fine illustrator, and eventually concentrated on painting alone..

Artist's Statement: Much of my outlook in life has been shaped by the people, the injustices of the slate industry, and landscape of the area. Among other things this shaping manifested itself in a sense of belonging, an awareness of ancestry and a deep love of the countryside itself. It is this love for my homeland that I have tried to convey in the paintings here in my first exhibition at the National Library of Wales, most of which are the result of my endeavours over the past year or so.

Nearly all were painted out of doors, executed quickly and with the minimum of fuss in a style dictated to by subject, conditions and experience. I have striven to remain faithful to the motif (though not its slave), finding that no extra dramatization is needed, or even desirable, in a country as varied in weather and topography as is Wales. I have not sought either to depict only the spectacular, finding as ever, as much beauty in the more intimate riches as I would in the great crags of 'Eryri'. It is perhaps through the intimacy more than anything that I hope to have captured a measure, at least, of the essence of my Wales and with this in mind, I hope the work will be seen to possess a degree of sincerity.

The larger paintings have 'evolved' in the studio, worked up from out door paintings and memory, which I feel is the companion of observation. They are never exact copies (it would be futile, I feel, to attempt to recapture the spontaneity of the 'plain art work', but are in fact the result of my endeavouring to convey the feeling I had (or have), for a certain place at a certain time. Through them I have been able to enjoy the act of painting, the mixing of colours, the laying down of paint, the working up of textures and so on, none of which can be fully savoured during the intensity of working out of doors."

(quoted from http://www.llgc.org.uk/gwyb/gwyb_s_datganiad18.htm)