We are delighted to have recently acquired some lovely work by John Elwyn. This self exiled Welsh artist is one of our firm favourites and his work has a great collectors following. John Elwyn was greatly admired by his contemporary native artists such as Sir Kyffin Williams RA who said , 'the work of John Elwyn will always stand out and be admired'. he was , of course, correct and he has , in recent years, come out from the shadows and is now rightly regarded as one of the greats.
Titled ' Welsh Farm'
John Elwyn trained at the RCA in London and was encouraged to stay in London by his friend and artist Ceri Richards , who put him in touch with various London galleries. By the end of the 1940's he was exhibiting regularly with the Royal Academy and in 1948 he moved to Hampshire where he lived until his death in 1997. His move out of London, was to take up a post at Portsmouth College of Art followed by one at Winchester College of Art . He lived at 5, Compton Road, Winchester , a lovely period town Villa and a photograph is shown below.
John Elwyn's home in Wichester
By the start of the 1950's his paintings were widely acclaimed , particularly in Wales where his figurative 'Chapel' and 'Miners returning home' paintings were much loved . By the end of the 1950's his figurative work had increasingly given way to pure landscapes which were more often than not depictions of Welsh rural scenes taken from his memories of Cardiganshire. The work we have available here at Blondes Fine Art is an example of such a landscape showing his characteristic geometric and patterned landscapes. All of which are executed in the vibrant colours that he loved to use. Vivid green, yellow and orange sunlit fields, imposing skies, white - washed barns , hedgerows, stone walls and a lane winding away into the distance. These were the recurrent themes in John Elwyn's later work and he painted many variations on the same theme with titles such as Welsh farm, Dyfed Landscape and Upland farm occurring numerous times.
John Elwyn left Winchester Art College in 1976 to become a full time artist and he worked from memory and sketch books. Often, he was not sure what they would look like at the beginning and inspiration might emerge during the painting, from perhaps poetry or the weather conditions. Like so many artist he had a love of gardening and painted plants at different times of the day and in all seasons so it, perhaps , could not be more fitting that it was in his beloved garden when he fell and sustained an injury that caused his passing on 13th November 1997.
During his life time he had multiple exhibitions and his work is held by private and public collections throughout the country. We are always interested in hearing from anyone who is considering selling work by John Elwyn.