Press Release, 16.01.2019
Centennial celebration of Jonah Jones’ work opens new season of exhibitions at Plas Glyn-y-Weddw
A special exhibition paying homage to the artist, educator, author and pacifist Jonah Jones is central to the launch of the programme of exhibitions for 2019 at Plas Glyn-y-Weddw on the 26th and 27th of this month.
Alongside the centennial celebration will be Connection, an exhibition by aselection of artists with a link to Jonah’s life and work.
The exhibitions on the gallery’s first floor will focus on paying homage to Pen Llŷn. Brother and sister, Owain and Lea Sautin, originally from Llanbedrog, will be exhibiting together for the first time in Sautin + Sautin, while Mapio Llŷn will be the Shrewsbury-based artist Ruth Gibson’s first solo exhibition.
A remarkable man, Jonah Jones (1919–2004) became well-known for his many talents. Born and bred in northeast England, he had Welsh roots and decided to settle down and live in Wales at the end of the 1940s. He came to Llanystumdwy to work at the Caseg Press with the artist John Petts, followed soon after by a short, intensive stay at the workshop of the late Eric Gill, where he learned the techniques of lettering and carving in stone. He established a studio in Eifionydd and started to make a living solely from his art.
He was also an author and during this period he published two novels, a series of essays, an illustrated book about the lakes of north Wales, and a biography of Clough Williams-Ellis. He made a substantial contribution to art education, was a generous mentor of many emerging artists and was an external assessor for several art colleges in England.
The wide-ranging show will include examples of his sculptures, paintings, lettering and glass from both public and private collections. A fine example of his stained-glass work exhibited are two windows recently removed from the Catholic Church at Morfa Nefyn, which has recently closed. Many of his calligraphy works combine poetry and legends and were produced during the last fifteen years of his life after he moved to live in Cardiff, his health not being good enough to carve sculptures.
It has been a pleasure and honour for Plas Glyn-y-Weddw to work alongside Jonah’s family, his two sons David Townsend Jones and Peter Jones and daughter Naomi Trodden, to bring this exhibition together. Examples of his work have been borrowed from establishments and individuals from all over England and Wales, creating a unique opportunity for the public to enjoy and appreciate a special collection under one roof. A publication will be launched to accompany the exhibition and will be available to buy from the gallery. A limited-edition softback version of his book The Gregynog Journals will be on sale at the gallery along with some prints.
Connection includes works by a selection of artists working with a variety of media. Some were friends, such as Claire Langdown and David Nash, while Meic Watts shared a studio with Jonah and received inspiration from him as he was embarking on a career as a sculptor working with stone. Howard Bowcott was another young sculptor who appreciated Jonah’s support and the three, Jonah, Meic and Howard, exhibited together as the ‘Moelwyn Group’.
Other media Jonah worked with are represented by glass, lettering and watercolour, while homage is paid to his book on the lakes of north Wales by Vivienne Rickman Poole and Aled Prichard-Jones. Richard Higlett, who works with different media, has responded directly to Jonah’s work, while Simon Callery’s input is from a recent scholarship at the British School in Rome, where Jonah was a past Board member.
Owain and Lea both live in Cardiff but their work is deeply rooted in the soil of Llŷn. Owain’s inspiration comes from the landscape and the scenery, especially the peninsula’s beaches and magical coves. He has photographed his subjects and has worked on the images using computer programmes, giving them a magical effect. While they are still recognisable, the viewer is drawn to guess and marvel at familiar scenery.
Lea’s work is also magical: she concentrates on fairy tales and local folklore. A printmaker, she has adopted a unique way of creating striking images through a diligent process of drawing on paper before cutting and shaping to create scenes and characters to record in print.
The Llŷn landscape is also the subject of Ruth Gibson’s exhibition Mapping Llŷn. She combines an interest in photography and ceramics to create unique and beautiful pieces through a screenprint process where images of the landscape are transferred to the clay before it is shaped, glazed and fired. This method of working allows her to combine photorealism with more abstract marks to build layers of images. It is possible to draw comparison in the way Lea and Ruth work, both developing their finished pieces by combining images and skilful craftwork, which was also prominent in Jonah’s work.
The Jonah Jones and Connection exhibitions open at 1.30pm on the 26th of January and will run until March 17th. The opening of Sautin+Sautin and Mapping Llŷn follows on the 27th of January. The events programme during the exhibitions will include drop-in workshops at the half-term holidays, calligraphy workshops for adults and a trip to Portmeirion (who have kindly sponsored the Jonah Jones Exhibition Catalogue). More details can be found on our website www.oriel.org.uk.
Please call the gallery on 01758 740 763 to arrange interviews with Jonah Jones’s family or the artists.