Kyffin Williams’s landscapes light up National Library

The library has released more tickets for the Profiad Kyffin Experience after more than 1,000 tickets were booked in 10 days. It opens to the public on Wednesday 18 November, with sessions available to book until the end of March 2027.

Narrated by opera singer Sir Bryn Terfel, the 30-minute bilingual experience surrounds visitors with projections of Williams’s paintings of mountains, hill farms and sheepdogs, accompanied by music composed for the installation.

Focal Studios, which led the design, worked with researchers at Liverpool John Moores University to make detailed 3D scans of the paintings.

The scans capture the texture of the paint, a feature of Williams’s work with a palette knife, and are used in an interactive easel where visitors can make a self-portrait. A 3D-printed map shows places where the artist walked and painted.

Focal Studios chief executive Dennis Outten said: “Kyffin’s paintings are so textured that we had to invent two new technologies to do them justice.”

Leo Mercer, the project’s creative director, composed the soundtrack, which is performed by Welsh folk trio VRï with other musicians. Singer-songwriter Casi Wyn helped develop the bilingual experience.

“We spent a long time living with Kyffin’s paintings, choosing the works that tell his story: the farmers and the sheepdogs he loved, the mountains he was in awe of,” Mercer said.

Culture and Sport Minister Heledd Fychan unveiled the installation on Thursday. She said: “I believe that access to culture should be a fundamental right for everyone in Wales, whoever they are and wherever they live.”

Slade School of Art

Williams was born in Llangefni in 1918 and studied at the Slade School of Art. A landscape and portrait painter, he became a Royal Academician and was knighted in 1999. His subjects ranged from the coastline of Ynys Môn to the people and animals of Welsh hill farms.

The National Library bought one of his paintings in 1950 and now holds the world’s largest collection of his work. When Williams died in 2006, he left the library more than 1,200 works on paper, around 200 oil paintings and more than 300 original prints, as well as his personal archive.

The Colwinston Charitable Trust provided the main funding for the installation through its 30th anniversary fund. The Welsh Government and the Friends of the National Library of Wales also supported the project.

Sessions are limited to 10 people. Admission is free, with a small booking fee, and children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets are available through the National Library of Wales.

The library is also showing a separate exhibition of Williams’s portraits and self-portraits, Kyffin: Face to Face, at its Riverside gallery in Haverfordwest. That exhibition runs until 3 April 2027.