Kyffin Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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, Snowdonia, Wales 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.
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 descendents in Patagonia.
According to BBC North West Wales, Kyffin Williams was considered by many to be 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.
In 1995, Sir Kyffin received the Glyndwr 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.
[edit] Bibliography
- Meic Stephens (Editor): The New Companion to the Literature of Wales (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1998) ISBN 0-7083-1383-3
[edit] External links
- Short biography of Kyffin Williams
- Kyffin Williams at the Martin Tinney Gallery
- Oriel Kyffin Williams Gallery - Prints
- Obituary: Sir Kyffin Williams
- Guardian obituary
- On-line book of condolence
- BBC announcement of the death of Sir Kyffin Williams - 01 Sept 2006
- Tributes to Sir Kyffin Williams left on the BBC website - Sept 2006
- Calls for home for Sir Kyffin's paintings to be on Anglesey
