PRESS RELEASE

09| 05 | 24

A Botanical Art Residency on Ynys Enlli
 August 2024

Menna Angharad |Cotton Grass

This summer, Welsh botanical artist Menna Angharad takes up residency on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) as she creates a collection of paintings examining rare and beautiful ferns and wildflowers of Wales.Menna was born and raised amid the rural beauty of North Wales, as the daughter of celebrated designer Susan Williams-Ellis, and the granddaughter of renowned 20th century architect Clough Williams-Ellis, who designed the Grade I listed gardens of Plas Brondanw. She studied Botany before training at Byam Shaw School of Art in London and gaining an MA in Fine Art from Cardiff University.

The art residency is hosted by Ymddiriedolaeth Ynys Enlli (The Bardsey Island Trust), which protects and promotes it as a place of special scientific, historical and spiritual interest. The trust invites artists from any discipline with a connection to Gwynedd, north Wales, to make work which responds to the Welsh language, culture, ecology, environment, or historical heritage of Ynys Enlli. The island is a National Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with an astonishing variety of grasslands and heathland plants including Thrift, Thyme, Spring Squill, Bell Heather and Ling, alongside 350 types of lichen including the rare Ciliate Strap and Golden Hair Lichens, and other rare plants such as Western Clover and Adder's Tongue ferns.

Menna says: "As a trained botanist and lover of the natural world I empathise with growing things, and painting is a way for me to explore their vibrant existence. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to spend time working on Bardsey, a place that I have long wished to explore. I look forward to doing lots of drawing and painting of the flora of this unique island, in particular studying ferns and other botanical highlights".

During her residency, Menna will be sketching and paintingen plein airand in the trust's dedicated art studio, interpreting the structural and textural beauty of the island's native plants. A selection of Menna's Ynys Enlli sketches will be available from September 2024 to collectors and those with an interest in the natural history of Wales's via Menna's website. The full collection of paintings will be on show at Oriel Brondanw at Plas Brondanw, Llanfrothen in 2025.

Menna Angharad lives and works at her studio near the historic market town of Hay-on-Wye. In 2015 she was awarded the People's Prize at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, and her work is held in the Jerwood Foundation Painting Collection. Menna exhibits extensively in Wales, the wider UK and France.

www.mennaangharadpainter.co.uk and www.orielbrondanw.org

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Print ready 300dpi images for press use 

MENNA ANGHARAD Cotton Grass
 
 

For further press information or additional images contact Mercedes Smith at Fine Art Communications director@fineartcommunications.co.uk / Tel 07825 270235 / www.fineartcommunications.co.uk