Kyffin Williams

Sir Kyffin Williams KBE RA (May 9 1918 – September 1 2006) was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll on the Island of Anglesey.

He was born in Llangefni, Anglesey into an old landed Anglesey family, and was educated at Shrewsbury School before joining the 6th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers as a lieutenant in 1937. After failing a British Army medical examination in 1941 (due to epilepsy), doctors advised him to become an artist, and so began the career of one of Wales' most prolific artists. A doctor advised him, "As you are, in fact, abnormal, I think it would be a good idea if you took up art".

Despite academic difficulties, Sir Kyffin enrolled at London's Slade School of Fine Art in 1941 and taught art at Highgate School, London, where he was senior art master from 1944 until 1973. His pupils included Royal Academicians Anthony Green and Patrick Procktor and composers John Tavener and John Rutter.

In 1968 he won a scholarship (Winston Churchill Fellowship) to study and paint Welsh descendants in Patagonia.

According to BBC North West Wales, Kyffin Williams was one of the most popular living artists in Wales. His works typically drew inspiration from the Welsh landscape and farmlands. His works appear in many galleries all over Britain and is on permanent exhibition in Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey. He was President of the Royal Cambrian Academy and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in 1974.

Kyffin Williams was a kind and gentle soul, an hilarious raconteur, mimic and conversationalist. He was also given to contribute many pieces of his work to countless charities and good causes. Dispite an abiding lack of self worth he was, without doubt, an immense talent. His ability to say so much with just a few swift, but very sure, lines or brush strokes was quite extraordinary. His art may have been within a defined tradition but it was unmistakenly his. Kyffin had a style all of his own and has influenced many of his contemporaries.

In 1995, Sir Kyffin received the Glyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the Machynlleth Festival. He was awarded the OBE for his services to the arts in 1982 and a KBE in 1999.

He died on September 1 2006, aged 88, at a nursing home in Anglesey after a long battle with cancer.

The Welsh singer and Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield released a track called "Which Way to Kyffin" on his 2006 album The Great Western, which is dedicated to Sir Kyffin Williams.

Bibliography

* Meic Stephens (Editor): "The New Companion to the Literature of Wales" (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1998) ISBN 0-7083-1383-3

External links

* [http://www.modernbritishartists.co.uk/kyffinwilliams_biog.htm Short biography of Kyffin Williams]
* [http://www.kyffinwilliams.info/ Oriel Kyffin Williams Gallery - Prints]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/5305786.stm Obituary: Sir Kyffin Williams]
* [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,,1864138,00.html Guardian obituary]
* [http://www.angleseyheritage.org/doc.asp?cat=842 On-line book of condolence]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/5305760.stm BBC announcement of the death of Sir Kyffin Williams - 01 Sept 2006]
* [http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=3561&&edition=1&ttl=20060904123504 Tributes to Sir Kyffin Williams left on the BBC website - Sept 2006]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/5319740.stm Calls for home for Sir Kyffin's paintings to be on Anglesey]
* [http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/item10/28982 The works of Kyffin Williams from Gathering the Jewels]