Wales in Colour’: Paintings & Film by Mikey Jones

The recent blanket of snow could be described as incredibly beautiful but was possibly seen as devoid of colour from one welsh artist’s perspective. Mikey Jones brings a splash of colour to South Wales next week with his latest exhibition ‘Wales in Colour’. It depicts numerous welsh landmarks and beauty spots from The Millennium Stadium and Caerphilly Castle in the South to South Stack Lighthouse, Anglesey in the North and Pen-y-Fan and Llanfilo somewhere in between.

Mikey Jones is an exciting young artist from Wrexham. For the past year, he travelled across Wales sourcing inspiration and painting where possible for his ‘Wales in Colour’ series. This ongoing series has been exhibited in numerous welsh galleries. It looks at Wales, documenting various cities, towns and landscapes to capture Wales in all its complexity, beauty, harsh realities and distinctive characteristics that form our Welsh identity. According to Mikey Jones: “Wales is a country renowned for its diverse natural beauty and proud historic culture. Each piece expresses elements that together, builds a vivid contemporary narrative of Wales as I see it today.”

After studying Architecture at Bristol UWE Mikey Jones began to document the built and natural environment, focusing on the architectural and social context of the areas he paints. He likes to paint in oils in situ, often in unfavourable climes and extremes of temperature. His painting of Caerphilly Castle in this show begun on location under a sheet of tarpaulin to protect the work from typical torrential welsh downpours. It’s all in a day’s work for this artist.

The ‘Wales in Colour’ exhibition by Mikey Jones is supported by a film documentary. Supporting this exhibition is a profile from Wrexham ceramicist Sara Jane Harper. Opens at Y Galeri Caerffili on 13 March & continues until 14 April. Open 10am – 5.pm, Tues -Saturday. Free admission.