File A1/2 - The learning lark

John Elwyn (William John Elwyn Davies, 1916-1997), artist, was born 20 November 1916 at Adpar, Newcastle Emlyn, Cardiganshire, the youngest child of David and Anne Davies. He attended Adpar County Junior School and Llandysul County Grammar School, before going on to Carmarthen School of Art, 1935-1937, the West of England College of Art, Bristol, 1937-1938, and the Royal College of Art, London, 1938-1940. During the Second World War he worked on the land as a Conscientious Objector; he then returned to finish his course at the Royal College of Art, 1946-1947. He taught at Portsmouth College of Art, 1948-1953, before moving to Winchester College of Art, where he taught until his retirement in 1976. As an artist he became best known for his paintings of the landscape and society of his youth in West Wales, as well as of the mining area of Pontrhydyfen (where he had worked during the War) and his portrait paintings. He also worked as an illustrator, contributing to the Radio Times and the Shell Guides to the Countryside, and to volumes such as Leslie Harries, Chwe Drama Fer (Llandysul, 1944) and Dafydd ap Gwilym, Houses of Leaves (Llandogo, 1993). His work was exhibited widely in galleries throughout Britain, as well as the National Museum of Wales and the National Library of Wales, which held a retrospective exhibition in 1996. He was a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy and the Gorsedd of Bards and was awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Wales in 1996. John Elwyn married Gillian Butterworth in 1970 and died in Southampton on 13 November 1997.