He came from an old Anglesey family, associated with Treffos in Llansadwrn, and Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy. John Kyffin studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and then became Senior Art Master at Highgate School. Returning to Anglesey in 1974, Kyffin Williams devoted himself to recording the island he loved, with a studio and home beside the Menai Strait near Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. In his later years Kyffin achieved public recognition, his work being widely exhibited and published.
Kyffin Williams was a master of many media. His landscapes, often palette-knifed, capture precisely the light, colours and textures of land and sea. Human figures often feature as an integral part of the landscapes, such as farmers battling with the elements or calling their dogs to order. Kyffin’s portraits reveal character and features shaped by life on the island. He also followed the Welsh to their old colony of Patagonia, the Gwladfa. In South America his work took on a more vibrant colouring. Autobiographical books – ‘Across the Straits’ (1973) and ‘A Wider Sky’ (1991) – reveal much about Anglesey as well as himself.
Kyffin
Sir Kyffin Williams, OBE, RAWith a preface by Robert Williams and the cover photograph by Nicholas Sinclair.
Softcover, 48 pages. Bilingual text. Published 2008
£10 (including postage within UK):
With characteristic generosity Kyffin Williams made a series of donations of drawings and paintings to Anglesey's local authority, intended to promote the foundation of a gallery devoted to Welsh art. In the 1990s three major retrospective exhibitions -- "the first time I'd been taken seriously" -- were held at the new gallery for the island, Oriel Ynys Môn. Oriel Kyffin Williams opened on the same site in 2008.
Sir Kyffin held the belief that the skills of a painter properly develop only after achieving proficiency in drawing. At the heart of the Oriel's collection are more than 300 drawings, made in all weathers, of the countryside he loved. As well as recording the beauty that still remains, they also provide a valuable record of aspects of Anglesey life that have vanished in recent years. To Kyffin they were essential reference material for the oil paintings he made back in the studio. To the public, they afford the pleasure of viewing Anglesey afresh through the eyes of a distinguished artist. The book is profusely illlustrated. In addition to the drawings are a number of oil paintings, some of them considered to be amongst his very best work. The accompanying text is taken from the artist's own writings and interviews.
Kyffin Williams’s Autobiographies
Across the Straits. Hardcover, 222 pagesOriginally published in 1973. New revised edition first published by Gwasg Gomer in 1993, and now in limited supply. (The books offered are from the remaining stock of this title).
£40 (including postage within UK):
A Wider Sky. Hardcover, 256 pages. Gomer Press. First published 1991
£30 (including postage within UK):
“Most landscape painters react to their own country more strongly than to any other, and I am happy to remain in Wales and paint my own particular part of it. In Anglesey the white farms and cottages welcome me, while across the Straits I can see those wonderful mountains and am able to take advantage of them whenever I wish to do so.” —Kyffin Williams
Portraits 1944–1993
With an introduction by Llion Williams, a preface (‘Thoughts on portrait painting’) by Kyffin Williams, and an essay by Leslie Jones. Softcover, 36 pages. Bilingual text. Published 1993£7.50 (including postage within UK):
Wales: an Anthology
Collected by Alice Thomas Ellis, with a cover and many illustrations by Kyffin Williams. Hardcover, 304 pages. Published 1989These out-of-print books are not new, but they are in very good unmarked condition, complete with their dustjackets.
£22.50 (including postage within UK):
