Kyffin and more: A few Ynys Môn artists
By Ben Rogers Jones, partner with Rogers Jones & Co Auctioneers & Valuers
This guest blog by Ben Rogers Jones delves into the works of Kyffin and other notable Ynys Môn artists, including Tom Gerrard, Wilf Roberts, Harry Hughes Williams, and Charles Tunnicliffe.
Wherever there is holiday there is art. And Ynys Môn’s contrasting landscapes have attracted visitors and inspired artists throughout history. However, it was in the 20th Century that the art of the island became commercial and there was one giant of the scene whose legacy is as lasting as any one other Anglesey figure.
It is surely a sign that a person has achieved the status of icon if they can dispense with a surname: Elvis, for instance, or Madonna. And so, with Kyffin. Kyffin Williams, one of the most recognisable post war UK artists, and one who can be confidently referred to by his Christian name only. A name as original and austere as his landscapes.
Kyffin Williams (1918 – 2006) was born in Ynys Môn, and after many years teaching art at Highgate School, returned to his native island in 1973, settling on the shores of the Menai Strait, his horizon defined by the mountains of Eryri.

If his home provided him with inspiration, then Kyffin repaid the island generously: not only by painting its landscape, but also supporting its local artists. Among these, he befriended and bought work from the talented amateur artist, Tom Gerrard (1923 – 1976) from Gaerwen, who painted prolifically between the demands of his work for the Inland Revenue. Gerrard’s landscapes of Môn and North Wales clearly show Kyffin’s stylistic and thematic influence, and over the past few years have been steadily gaining the attention they deserve.

The painter Wilf Roberts (1941 – 2016) was particularly drawn to the area around Mynydd Bodafon where he was raised. He too shared Kyffin Williams’s love of simplified forms and thickly applied and textured paint, often with the addition of brightly coloured sections of red, ochre and green, which render his depictions of his square mile as striking as they are unmistakable.
Roberts himself said that he was initially encouraged to paint by Harry Hughes Williams (1892 – 1953), his art teacher at Llangefni Grammar School, whose own work displays a softer, more impressionist approach to the landscape of the island. Though forced by ill-health to abandon a prestigious travelling scholarship and return to Môn, the island’s windmills, farms, and above all, light, provided Harry Hughes Williams with subjects and themes worthy of his impressionist vision.

It would be impossible not to mention Charles Tunnicliffe (1901 – 1979) in this brief overview of collectible twentieth century Ynys Môn artists. He lived at Malltraeth from 1947, amid the wildlife and birds which he depicted and for which he is so renowned. His work is familiar to many baby boomers through his beautifully observed illustrations for the Ladybird seasons books, and he was the obvious choice to illustrate Henry Williamson’s classic, Tarka the Otter.

Inhabitants and lovers of Ynys Môn are spoilt for choice when it comes to collecting pictures inspired by the island. From large Kyffin oils, which sell for tens of thousands (the current record stands at £62,000) to the work of established and emerging artists who have yet to command such prices, the Welsh art market is thriving and continues to attract new buyers.
It’s not all about investment, of course. A piece of art which resonates can evoke memories and transport the viewer to another time and place. The same magical transformation described by Kyffin Williams himself when working away from his homeland: “Mentally I ceased to be in London; the room became peopled with farmers and sheepdogs and bounded by stone walls and rocky cliffs.”
There are four Rogers Jones & Co auction houses across Wales, specialising in Welsh Art. Its North Wales branch is situated in Colwyn Bay.