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Arts and crafts in South Wales

South Wales has a population of around 1,388,000 and covers approximately 753 square miles. Here is a list of counties in South Wales: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taff, The Vale of Glamorgan, Torfaen.


Peter Prendergast

(Born 1946 in Abertridwr in Caerphilly), Painting

Winner of the Nettleship Prize for Figure Painting in 1967, Prendergast was thought of as one of the leading Welsh landscape painters.

Leslie Thomas

(Born 1931 in Newport in Newport), Fiction

Leslie Thomas was a British author who wrote many novels and is particularly well known for his comic novel The Virgin Soldiers. In December 2004 he was made officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.

Frank Vining

(Born 1924 in Aberfan in Merthyr Tydfil), Pottery and ceramics

Known as an influential teacher of pottery. He produced modernist stoneware which was exhibited during 1961- 1968. His pottery is represented in the National Museum Cardiff and Aberystwyth University.

Christopher Williams

(Born 1873 in Maesteg in Bridgend), Painting

Welsh artist Christopher Williams often painted large canvases, requiring venues of sufficient size to exhibit them. The subject matter he chose generally included themes of interest to him, such as Welsh heritage and identity, as in his painting Cymru’n Deffro (Wales Awakes in English).

William Henry Davies

(Born 1871 in Pillgwenlly in Newport), Poetry

Also known as W.H.Davies, he was a Welsh poet and writer. Spending a large part of his life as a tramp in the UK and the USA, his main topic was based on lifes hardship and his experiences as a tramp. He also wrote poems based on his love of nature. One of his notable works was The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.

Goscombe John

(Born 1860 in Canton in Cardiff), Sculpture

An excellent sculptor of public monuments like the statue of David Lloyd George in Caernarfon.