40 x 30cm
£395  

Painting of Barry Island

The painting is part of the series "Valley Lines: Bargoed to the Bay".

The paintings explore the historical, economic and cultural connections - both physical and emotional - between people and places in the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff.

The paintings invite the viewer to refect on Cardiff and the Valleys' move from a (physically tough) industrial and maritime economy, based on the mining, transport and export of coal, to an e-commerce, media and tourism based economy of entertainment and leisure opportunities.

Barry Island - very much at the end of the Valley line - was always a leisure opportunity even when Barry was the major coal exporting port.

As a child, our family, like thousands of other families would go on day trips to Barry Island. We would catch a train from Llandaff North Station. It always seemed like a major expedition.

This view is at the opposite end of the promenade from the amusement arcades. The new houses on the hill occupy the former site of a Butlins holiday camp. The smart beach huts were a new addition when I took some relatives from Australia to see "what’s occurring?" in the early autumn of 2014.

The bright, saturated colours of the painting represent the childhood opttimism that the weather would be fine. It always was, wasn't it? My memory is unreliable