Kyffin Williams

Sir Kyffin Williams KBE RA (May 9 1918 – September 1 2006) was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll on the Island of Anglesey.

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He was born in Llangefni, Anglesey into an old landed Anglesey family, and was educated at Shrewsbury School before joining the 6th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers as a lieutenant in 1937. After failing a British Army medical examination in 1941 (due to epilepsy), doctors advised him to become an artist, and so began the career of one of Wales' most prolific artists. A doctor advised him, "As you are, in fact, abnormal, I think it would be a good idea if you took up art".

Despite academic difficulties, Sir Kyffin enrolled at London's Slade School of Fine Art in 1941 and taught art at Highgate School, London, where he was senior art master from 1944 until 1973. His pupils included Royal Academicians Anthony Green and Patrick Procktor and composers John Tavener and John Rutter.

In 1968 he won a scholarship (Winston Churchill Fellowship) to study and paint Welsh descendants in Patagonia.

According to BBC North West Wales, Kyffin Williams was one of the most popular living artists in Wales. His works typically drew inspiration from the Welsh landscape and farmlands. His works appear in many galleries all over Britain and is on permanent exhibition in Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey. He was President of the Royal Cambrian Academy and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in 1974.

In 1995, Sir Kyffin received the Glyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the Machynlleth Festival. He was awarded the OBE for his services to the arts in 1982 and a KBE in 1999.

He died on September 1 2006, aged 88, at a nursing home in Anglesey after a long battle with cancer.

The Welsh singer and Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield released a track called "Which Way to Kyffin" on his 2006 album The Great Western, which is dedicated to Sir Kyffin Williams.

Bibliography

• Meic Stephens (Editor): The New Companion to the Literature of Wales (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1998) ISBN 0-7083-1383-3