Silent Valley, Cwm, South Wales

As you approach along a steep incline of terraced Victorian houses there is nothing to hint at what is just around the corner.

The car park is a wonderful hay meadow full of wild flowers. You immediately feel you are away from the world. Far from "Silent" there are song birds and the pleasant rush of the river. As our ears become accustomed to listening, there is a persistent cuckoo. There seem to be more about this year.

Follow the path and you enter woodland. In June the beech trees have just developed their fresh green leaves, but we must return in autumn to see their golden splendour.  The path, as with most welsh walks, goes up the hillside.  The occasional bluebell is visible now, so hopefully in a few years they will spread and should become quite a show in themselves.

As the pathway becomes steeper the landscape opens out to the mountain. Now there are less birds, and in the distance you can hear the clanking of machinery and lorries from the mountain top tip.

On site signage is poor with no indication of distances along the waymarked routes.  I, of course, have mislaid my leaflet which would have indicated where to go and what to see.

http://www.gwentwildlife.org/reserves/silent-valley-local-nature-reserve-sssi

Vernon W Jones at Pontypool Museum, South Wales

Above the Waves Exhibition

Breathe in the salty air, feel the sea spray on your skin and transport yourself to the seaside at this exhibition by a Pontypool born artist.

This up-and-coming artist who left college and disappeared around the world with a back-pack, Vernon Jones loves to paint the sea in all its moods and guises.

Fantastic paintings by Vernon W Jones on display at Pontypool Museum

To see more works click on the link to Vernon's website at the bottom of this blog. 

"In my paintings I aim to present my respect and admiration for this great source of inspiration to me. I hope my work will inspire you, the viewer, too."  Vernon W Jones 

Please make sure you take your sea-sick pills before visiting this exhibition at the Oriel Barker Gallery, Pontypool Museum. Vernon paints waves that I swear you can see moving. He captures the many moods of the ocean and its different colours. No need for a cruise this year, just pop up to Pontypool.

"I have spent much time contemplating the sea in order to be able to paint with movement and accuracy how it "works," how it "feels."  It is like a mechanism, a continuous example of cause and effect as observed in the laws which life depends upon, and by which we live. In this spirit I approach my subject through a series of different categories of works designed to improve my work and produce "better" works as time goes on.  It is my goal artistically to compete against myself and stretch my limitations by uncovering weaknesses and turn them into strengths."  Vernon W Jones

"My introduction to this subject came as something "landing on my lap," meeting another artist who suggested I try painting J Calss Yachts in oils. I decided to try under his guidance, training I still use in my own way with my own developed techniques. At first, in 2005, I struggled and I remember trying to make it "work." There were so many things to consider, the importance of keeping perspective, movement and the different shapes that form the sea. Those coupled with no experience and little confidence in my new subject matter made it very hard to achieve the result I desired. I wanted to get the sea looking and feeling correct at least correct to me."

This exhibition will continue at Pontypool Museum until October 2014. Well worth a visit. Please check the museum's hours and days of opening beforehand.

e-mail: vernon.jones@hotmail.co.uk

website:  www.vernonwjones.co.uk

Valerie Gantz and Six Bells, South Wales

Back in the 1980's the artist Valerie Gantz stayed for a while in a row of cottages overlooking the Six Bells Pit.  It was in full working order at that time and she gained permission to go down with the men to make sketches.

At Ty Ebbw Fach Heritage Centre, Six Bells is an evocative image of hers of miners against the glow of street lights. In June we had a print of another of Valerie's images donated by Mr & Mrs A James.

Copyright of Valerie Gantz, Six Bells Pit, 1986.

This is a wonderful scene of the Six Bells Pit in 1986. All these buildings were removed and the shafts capped in 1990's and it has now been nominated a nature conservation area.

'Guardian' a twenty metre high monument has been erected on the site to commemorate a mining disaster in 1960 when 45 men lost their lives.

Sebastien Boyesen's 'Guardian' erected 2010