40 x 50cm
£550

Painting of a view of Cardiff Bay from the City Centre

This painting is one of the seven that made up the "Hiraethau" series exhibited at the Senedd Building in Cardiff Bay and which then transferred to the West Wharf Gallery in Cardiff during the summer of 2014.

With its view Cardiff Bay from the city centre (ish), the painting "bookends" the series with "Butetown After Dark?" which is from Cardiff Bay towards the city centre.

It is also a companion piece to the dreamlike "One Night My Dad’s Ship Came Into Cardiff" which was very well received at the Unreliable Memories exhibition at the West Wharf Gallery in the summer of 2013.

Ships, a common theme in my paintings, represent homecoming as the family is once again complete. However, we now know that the feeling of completeness is merely transient and the ship will soon sail again.

Though stylised, the painting is recognisably Cardiff Bay: the familiar shapes of Flatholm and Steepholm and Penarth Head are identifiable. The Norwegian Church (now arts centre) is shown close to its original position and the Bute dock is filled with water. The buildings, from the new builds on the left, the Pier Head and Norwegian Church to the Terra Nova Bar and St. David’s Hotel seem to be pointing to dad’s ship (represented in this painting by Furness Withy’s S.S. Pacific Northwest) and on out, past Penarth Head, to the Bristol Channel and the whole wide world.

The ship is coming home to Cardiff but we know it will soon sail again and we will feel the grief and sadness for loved ones lost to us: Hiraethau.