BEACONS WAY ART
The idea for the Art Trail was conceived by William Gibbs and developed with the help of the late John Sansom, both of the Brecon Beacons Park Society, and the Brecknock County Museum Art Trust. Much of the text for this website comes from 8 Stones, 8 Artists a guide to the art trial written by David Moore. Copies are available free of charge from the Tower Gallery in Crickhowell High Street.
It is linked to the Beacons Way and along each of the eight sections of the Way may be discovered a block of locally quarried stone into which has been set an A4 sized relief image created by one of eight artists working in the National Park. The plaques were installed along the Beacons Way by Panico Theodosiou.
As you walk the Beacons Way, each day see if you can find one of the artworks – some set into banks, others into walls. Grid references are given below, but you will still need to search a bit to find them!
The sculptures are all in relief to allow the visitor to take a rubbing to take home (see at the bottom of the page for rubbing techniques). But why not also take a photo of yourself with the art to record that you found it and post it on the Friends of the Brecon Beacons Facebook page?
Day 1. Holy Mountain to Llanthony
Desmond Harrison
SO 318235
Mountains and rivers have influenced Desmond Harrison’s art since 2003, when he set up his sculpture, print and mask making workshop near Brecon.
His contribution to the Beacons Way Art reflects the meandering river forms of the Usk valley seen directly from above. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia whilst at University and says “When I was really ill, I used to walk up the Allt every day and found peace in looking across the Usk Valley at the meanders of the river and wondered how many people from prehistoric times onwards had watched the same view and found some comfort from it.”
Day 2. Llanthony to Crickhowell
Sue Hiley Harris
SO 282240
Sue lives in Brecon and trained as a weaver in Bradford before moving to Wales in 1981. She has built up a reputation for her elegant handwoven silk scarves. She has developed a highly distinctive style of handwoven and constructed abstract sculpture using linen, hemp, wool, paper yarn and nylon mono-filament. Many works are dyed with natural pigments such as indigo or local earth pigments.
For her artwork she has chosen to spin and weave wool gathered from the footpath. Landscape features have been suggested by cutting images out of the plaster cast of the fabric before casting the whole work in bronze.
Day 3. Crickhowell to Llangynidr.
Richard Renshaw
SO 205217
Richard lives in an old farmhouse near Cwmdu and has taken the opportunity to explore the area on foot and cycle. Here, he says, “the landscape, flora and fauna are a continual source of pleasure and inspiration to me in my work”. He works in stone, iron, bronze and wood and has become fascinated by the interaction of sculpture with the landscape.
For the project he has pressed found objects from the locality into clay, made a plaster version of it and from this cast it in bronze. He feels that objects such as fern leaves, a buzzard’s wing and a sheep’s rib from the locality make it a very site-specific piece.
Day 4. Llangynidr to Storey Arms.
Marcelle Davies
SO 036205
THIS ARTWORK IS MISSING, BELIEVED STOLEN.
Born in Brecon she obtained a degree in Fine Art from Ravensbourne College and lived in Herefordshire for a while, returning to Brecon in 1980. She is well known for her lively and humorous embroidered scenes and has exhibited extensively in Wales. “The Beacons have been an everyday backdrop throughout my life. They were a playground where I walked, climbed, cycled and learned to swim.”
“My artwork is inspired by my everyday life in Brecon, where the town and surrounding landscape provide a stage.” She has had a bronze cast made of a figurative study for the Art Trail.
Day 5. Storey Arms to Craig-y-Nos
Megan Jones
SN861157
Megan Jones died in 2018 having lived for many years in Ystradgynlais on the southern edge of the Park. As a landscape painter she found the Brecon Beacons provided her with infinite subject matters. She particularly liked Craig Cerrig Gliesiad, which the walker will pass through today. But she also liked the area to the west as far as Llyn y Fan Fawr and Fach. She said that her “…paintings have numerous starting points – standing stones, old mine workings, outcropping rocks, reflections in water, a well-trodden path, pale dead grass under a leaden sky.”
The theme of landscape was the inspiration for her artwork whereby a landscape by her has been digitally imaged and then cast in bronze. This clearly shows the familiar outline of the Brecon Beacons.
Day 6. Craig-y-Nos to Llandeusant
Robert MacDonald
SN798222
THIS ARTWORK IS MISSING, BELIEVED STOLEN.
Robert MacDonald is a painter, printmaker and writer who has, since the 1980s lived in Penpont in the Usk Valley. He is a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society of Wales and his watercolours are widely exhibited winning many national prizes. His wide range of subject matter – mythical, surrealist, even satirical – reflects his varied and unusual life living in New Zealand, a career as a journalist and a writer and illustrator of books about the Maoris.
He has made a linocut for the Art Trail, which has ben digitally imaged and cast in bronze. It features the lady of the Lake at Llyn y Fan Fach – you can read about her in the Beacons Way guide.
Day 7. Llandeusant to Carreg Cennen
Sally Matthews
SN670192
Now living in Wales, Sally was born in Tamworth in 1964, her father a vet and her mother a farmer’s daughter, and obtained a degree in Fine Art and Sculpture from Loughborough. Her work concerns the unsentimental representation of animals in sculpture and drawing. It is their movement, life and spirit that interests her. “My passion for animals came from the endless looking at and discussion of an animal’s conformation and character” she explains. “It was not usually the show animal that inspired my work; it was the farm animals around me and their relationship with the landscape.”
Sally has chosen a sheep linocut, which has been digitally imaged and cast in bronze, for her contribution. “I love the idea people can take away a drawing that will remind them of the area.”
Day 8. Carreg Cennen to Bethlehem
Shirley Jones
SN683245
THIS ARTWORK IS MISSING, BELIEVED STOLEN
Shirley Jones was born in the Rhondda and, after obtaining and English degree, she taught English in London for seven years. She moved into printmaking and sculpture in the mid-1970s and has published books of etchings and mezzotints that complement her poems, prose and translations from Old English and Welsh. She lives in Llanhamlach, near Brecon and produces limited edition books under the imprint Red Hen press, which are much sought after by collectors of rare books worldwide.
For the Art Trail she has etched an image onto a zinc plate. “My image is from the lower fort, Y Gaer Fach, from which the larger fort, Y Gaer Fawr, can be seen, rising like a great arch of stones at the summit. It is a bleak place of compelling presence.”
Tips for Successful Rubbings
- Clean the plaque carefully with your hand or a soft cloth taking care not to damage the surface.
- Place a piece of suitable tracing paper* firmly over the plaque.
- Use a soft 2B pencil, wax crayon or ‘heel ball’.
- Rub firmly across the whole image in sweeping parallel strokes.
- Do not press too hard.
- Back home, protect the rubbing with art fixing spray.
* Note that copies of the book that accompanies the Art Trial, 8 Stones, 8 Artists, are available in the Tower Gallery, Crickhowell. These contain a number of tracing sheets for this purpose.
