85 x 60cm
SOLD  

A painting of Cardiff

This painting was shown at the Unreliable Memories exhibition at the West Wharf Gallery in the summer of 2013. It is almost a manifesto in painting form and I painted two versions: one of which I’m keeping for my personal collection. The Empire Pool and the Millennium Stadium, the Maritime Museum and the Senedd building appear side by side - as if Cardiff’s past and present generations exist side by side.

Cardiff Bay’s landmarks are jumbled together, there are new apartments built between the railway, which cuts Cardiff in two, and the docks. The apartments are representative (I can’t remember how they really are), as are the terraced houses of Splott near East Moors steelworks. On the far side of the tracks are more substantial terraces of houses and further out still, semi detached properties.

The twin cooling towers were at the bottom of Colchester Avenue near Newport Road and were demolished in 1969. Hornby Railways "Cardiff Castle" pulls its two model coaches towards London. The paddle steamer "Waverley" sets sail from Penarth Pier and my dad’s ship "Drina" is coming into Cardiff Docks. Ships in my paintings represent homecoming and the completeness of family. The Waverley may sail to far off Ilfracombe (and back again) but dad’s ship is always coming into port or is berthed.

At the top left of the painting we follow the Taff Trail past the Sofia Gardens Pavilion, Llandaff Cathedral to Castell Coch.