Kyffin Williams - Welsh Landscape Artist ( May 1918 to September 2006 )

Born in Llangefni in 1918, Sir Kyffin Williams went to prep school on Anglesey before moving to Shrewsbury School. He then trained at London’s Slade School of Fine Art in 1941, before teaching Art in London at Highgate School between 1944 and 1973. He is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century. His atmospheric, powerful paintings have a dramatic and often brooding quality that, for many, defines the Welsh landscape, and in particular the north Wales landscape. Despite using a subtle and limited palette, he was a considerable colourist and his best work has an unmistakable intensity. This intensity is also apparent in his portraits which, at their best, are the equal of his landscapes. He has been feted with honours and awards. He was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy in 1963, serving as its President for a period in the 1970s, and again in the 1990s. In 1968 he won a Winston Churchill Fellowship scholarship to study and paint in Y Wladfa, Patagonia. He was