Better late than never: St Cadoc, Llancarfan

     You may remember last year, about this time actually, the bf took me into the Vale of Glamorgan to look at a church, and how I felt I couldn't even bring myself to discuss the church let alone share my photos with you. If you can remember I was snapping away happily in the church - a church, I should remind you has received any amount of Lottery Funding to make it suitable for tourists - only to find an A4 notice pinned to a notice board inside the church stating that anybody wishing to post any image of the church online had to receive permission from the PCC or equivalent thereof. Utterly absurd. And shameful. How for instance were they going to police that? Anyway, emboldened by a recent conversation on twitter, here are the photos I took.

     Village and church nestle in a wooded valley - hard to think that we are not that far from Cardiff. The church, with those characteristics of Medieval Welsh churches - twin naves, no clerestory, austere unbuttressed tower - is very attractive, a bit beyond the ordinary. And that sense of being a bit beyond the ordinary continues within, for St Cadoc holds a couple of treasures, both of which are not quite apparent when you walk in, for Llancarfan church opens up to the visitor like a flower, atmospheric and accretive like all good country churches should be. The architecture is uneven and full of incident. There are old floors, whitewashed walls and at the far end of the s aisle a tall medieval screen all drawing in the visitor so that they can miss the immense late medieval wall painting of St George looming over them in all his pomp and pageantry. That, a recent discovery, is the first treasure. Step through the arcade into the nave and there in the chancel is the second treasure - the remains of a wooden Perp altarpiece. A rare survival. Equally astounding is the vast window in the N chancel wall that lights it.
     In the mid 20c George Pace came this way. He is an architect for whom I have a deep sense of ambiguity. He was capable of great sensitivity particularly when dealing with an ancient building but equally capable of producing the most rebarbative work imaginable. Thankfully his work here errs toward the former rather than the latter as at Spalding in Lincolnshire where the organ case is utterly atrocious. The outer doors of the porch are rather lovely, rather Arts and Crafts and will continue to improve with age. The s chapel furnishings are a mixed bag - the best things are the pews. As to the High Altar I will swiftly pass on.

Own work: West Door, Leominster Priory

     Two new artworks in a week, what's going on? Here's The West Door of Leominster Priory - the usual mixed media 26 x 27.5 cms on 300gsm watercolour paper. Enjoy.

Own work: Alignment of Stone, Moon and Star

     Apologies for not having posted anything for a while, but 'events dear boy, events'. Still, here I am with a new artwork to share: 'Alignment of Stone, Moon and Star' inspired by the view (not including standing stone) from our landing window. Anyway mixed media, 20 x 20 cms on 300gm watercolour paper.

The House Book II

      I know I'm repeating myself here but the strength of the interiors shown in The House Book is their confidence.  Their creators may sometimes miss the mark but they are not afraid of failure. Colourful, bold, experimental they are expressions of the personality, and perhaps even the subconscious, of the owner.  And for that they are to be applauded.

      Today - what a sorry contrast - we are timid. Bland. I may have used this analogy before but Goodhart Rendell, writing about the Late Gothic Revival followers of G F Bodley coined the phrase 'The wages of good taste is death' (cf Romans 6. 23) to describe their attenuated churches. (A little harsh, perhaps) The same could be applied to too much of today's interiors. It is all too reasonable. What are we so scared of? Are we so characterless? Unformed?

     I suppose that some of the blame can be placed with property programmes on tv as though we all should live permanently in blank canvas mode in case we should suddenly want to sell up and move. All far too corporate for me. The whole thing exemplified by C4's 'Grand Designs', where houses look like public buildings rather than homes; Dolly Parton once said, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap," and 'Grand Designs' shows it certainly takes a lot of money to look that bland, that characterless. Happily I think things really are beginning to change for the better. Colour, at least, is returning.
     Anyway here is a second selection of interiors and/or images that caught my eye; the first image is actually the Conran's kitchen from when they lived in one of those spectacularly theatrical terraces that fringe Regent's Park in London.

Own work: 'Llech Gronw'

     My latest pen and ink drawing, based on the slaying of Gronw Pibyr in 'Math fab Mathonwy' the fourth of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, the 'Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi'. At the end of the tale the usurping Gronw is confronted by the hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes hot for revenge. Although accepting Lleu's challenge Gronw, in an act both duplicitous and cowardly, hides behind a standing stone, but undeterred Lleu throws his spear at stone and coward piercing both.

Own work: 'Stones in a Mythic Landscape'

     My latest pen and ink drawing 'Stones in a Mythic Landscape' approx 19 x 17cms on 220 gsm cartridge paper.

Own work: The Sardis Independent Chapel

     Another new work for you.  The Sardis Independent Chapel, Ystradgynlais, Breconshire. Ystradgynlais, which is visually nearly all Victorian and later, is oddly enough situated south of the Brecon Beacons towards the head of the Tawe valley. So sort of industrial South Wales, really. Not the sort of place one would automatically associate with deeply rural Breconshire. The chapel, perhaps the grandest in the town, dates from the 1860s and is a far more dominant presence in the streetscape than the retiring parish church. As you can see from the collage it is a rather odd building with a number of mannerisms to the classical façade: the bases and capitals of the eight Doric pilasters, (which are missing both their pads, or orli, and abaci), are continuous between adjoining pilasters, and the entablature is missing most of its cornice.

     It is now closed. Anyway, this is a mixed-media collage roughly 30 x 37cms on watercolour board.