The jaunty, naive style is intended to convey her early life as remembered 'through the eyes of a child', with the various scenes charmingly recalling life as it was lived during this period. Each painting is accompanied by commentary by the artist on its context and subjects, creating a uniquely personal and insightful record of the bygone traditions and community activity of rural Wales. -- Publisher: Graffeg
When she was in her seventies, sculptor Eironwy Llewellyn turned to painting to create a series of memory-paintings of her childhood, from 1930 (the year of her birth) to 1944. She was born in Aberystwyth but spent much of her childhood on her Mamgu’s farm at an unspecified location, presumably in the hinterland of the town. There were also visits to her Mamam, her maternal grandmother, at the seaside (presumably Aberystwyth). During the early years of the war, the family appear to be living somewhere near Milford Haven where Eironwy experienced from a distance the bombing of the oil refinery. Each painting is given a full-page spread in this attractively produced large-format book, with a facing paragraph of text in which the artist provides a commentary on what we are seeing. The most memorable section for me takes place on Mamgu’s farm where Eironwy is surrounded by uncles and numerous cousins. It is a small mixed farm, as most Welsh farms were in those days, so there are scenes of egg collecting, hay-making, milking, feeding the pigs, and harvesting potatoes. Much of this was a hard grind, especially harvesting potatoes by hand in muddy fields. Mamgu was clearly an indomitable old lady, grim in her own way, and not that approachable, but clearly loved by Eironwy for whom the farm was a wonderful playground and a place of emotional security. As her daughter Sara Llewellyn explains in a brief introduction, her mother went on to train at Swansea College of Art and became a teacher of art and an art therapist, leading a very different urbanised, middle-class life in her adult years. But the farm and its magical intensity was always there, deep within her, to emerge toward the end of her life in these paintings. The paintings themselves are executed in a naïf, cartoon-like style, in vibrant colours, with people and animals larger than life, energised and made vivid in the recovery of a child’s experience of a world that has long since disappeared, though I can remember farms just like Mamgu’s in the Black Mountains of my own childhood. This is a very attractive book which, with its simple text and large colourful images, would make an excellent birthday or Christmas present for a child (aged 7-14), recreating a world just below the horizon of modern experience. -- John Barnie @ www.gwales.com

These artworks and writings have been compiled by Eironwy's daughter, Sara.

A uniquely personal and charming collection of 53 original artworks depicting life in rural Wales from 1930-1944, painted retrospectively from memory by artist Eironwy Llewellyn whilst in her seventies.