Glyn Morgan

1926-

Glyn Morgan paints pictures that stay in the memory.  Enigmatic and allusive, they can leave the viewer pondering their true meaning, questioning what was in the artist's mind when he first put brush to canvas.  This is not surprising, as the influences and inspirations drawn on in over 60 years dedicated to painting have been unusually varied.

Although he has lived mostly in England, Morgan's Welsh origins remain important.  As a young man he studied at Cardiff College of Art under another Welshman, Ceri Richards, whom he considered "a marvellous teacher."  During these early years Morgan painted fine studies of the industrial landscape around where he was born in Pontypridd. After settling in England he returned to Wales periodically.

As a young exhibitor in Wales in the mid-1940s Morgan was introduced to the artist and plantsman Cedric Morris.  He remained a key figure in Morgan's life until the older artist died almost 40 years later. Morris invited the young Morgan to visit The East Anglian School of Painting, at Benton End, near Hadleigh, Suffolk, which Morris ran with Arthur Lett-Haines. 

Morgan realised that the type of dogged realism taught at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, where he also studied, was not for him. Later on visits to Paris produced the portraits, still lives and landscapes,some of which were the the result of trips elsewhere.  The most enduring relationship has been with Greece and its legacy of myth and legend.   Morgan made his first trip there in 1963 and five years later a Goldsmiths' Company Award enabled him to paint in Crete for several months.

Morgan has produced an impressive stream of pictures inspired by Mediterranean legend.  The theme of his 1996 Chappel Galleries exhibition was the myth of the Green Man, inspired by William Anderson's 1990 book on the subject, a figure who for Anderson signified "irrepressible life."  The Blodeuwedd series, from the Mabinogion, has preoccupied Morgan for several years.  Another of Morgan's inspirations is music, which he listens to continually as he works.  Liszt and Mahler have prompted memorable pictures.