Un Nos Ola Leuad: John Abell debuts new paintings at Cardiff gallery

Stephen Price

A solo exhibition featuring new paintings by celebrated painter John Abell titled Un Nos Ola Leuad is set to take place in Cardiff this November.

Presented by Gallery TEN, Abell’s artworks are rooted in landscape, coupled with a strong sense of storytelling.

This concise body of large-scale paintings shows a flourishing in his practice. As a printmaker in his early career, his first paintings were debuted at the gallery 10 years ago.

Since then, Abell’s paintings have been shown internationally, with exhibitions in Edinburgh, London and New York. Un Nos Ola Leuad marks both a return to the gallery and to showing in Cymru

Folklore and mythology are integral themes woven through the work which is seeped in wild Gothicism, often erring towards the fantastical and apocalyptic.

His interests in the literature, folk history and poetry of his homeland walk hand-in-hand with his lived experience of the landscape.

Cynefin

This isn’t picturesque painting by a visiting artist, here we see clear knowledge and obvious familiarity with the topography of this country, born from a spiritual connection forged through hours of sublime immersion and miles of hiking through the land

The thundering, frothy, tree-split waterfall of ‘Pwll y Wrach’, the jutting mountain range of ‘Dyffryn Ogwen’, the starry, glowing night of ‘Nos Olau Leuad dros Gwm Saerbren’, all abstracted in thick brushstrokes; yet recognisable – if you’ve been, you’d know.

A sun/moon is prominent in most of the paintings, placed high in the bottom-heavy imagery, as if we are stood, feet on the earth, gazing upwards.

Ysbrydoliaeth/Inspiration

The exhibition’s title references Caradog Pritchard’s iconic novel published in 1961. A brilliant, mystical, sad tale of village life through the eyes of a young boy in Gogledd Cymru, where the landscape serves as both physical and emotional backdrop – at times, talking and guiding the main character.

It’s easy to make the link between Pritchard’s fiction and Abell’s paintings – both are poetic and otherworldly, led by the land

There is innate timeless history in the landscape and Abell taps into it. His paintings are simultaneously historical and futuristic, with his arresting visual language and distinctive motifs washing over us with immersive, fervent energy.

At its core, the art is the work of a proud Cymro who is exploring and researching his land and language, reaching for a deeper knowing and owning of his country and culture.

These paintings are political acts – reminding ourselves of our country’s rich folk culture, re-remembering tales tied to locations, re-instating places names to the forefront of our minds.

Abell and his paintings proudly places us in and of Cymru.

“A world so vast”

Cardiff-born John Abell studied at Camberwell College of Art, London and currently lives and works in the south Wales valleys.

Folklore and mythology are integral themes woven through John’s work, underlined by his love of Welsh culture and the landscape of Cymru.

His work, across painting and printmaking, is fantastical and apocalyptic, densely packed and seeped in his interests in literature, history and poetry.

John is particularly known for his large-scale monochrome wood block prints and intensely colourful gestural abstract painting.

His style and method of mark-making – intuitive, geometric and meditative – translate equally to both mediums.

Prints and publications are held in private and public collections worldwide including the V&A, the National Museum of Wales, the British Museum, the National Library of Australia in Canberra, the National Library of Canada in Ottawa and Columbia University Library in New York.

Abel shared: “My work is about painting through the Welsh landscape and my relationship with it, and what I can say about the Welsh landscape painting tradition.”

“A piece of poetry that I really like is:

[translated]

‘The world is more than Cymru

I understand this now

But thanks that little old Wales

Is part of a world so vast’ – Niclas Y Glais”

Un Nos Ola Leuad launches on 5 November at Gallery Ten, The Coach house, R/O 143 Donald St, Cardiff, CF24 4TP and runs until 30 November.

All works are available to view and purchase online now.