At full throttle

Andrew Lambirth on an artist’s relationship with the Llanthony Valley in south Wales

On a warm but dampish day a month ago, I set off for the wilds of south Wales to explore the Llanthony Valley in the Black Mountains. The train takes the visitor as far as Abergavenny, after which you’re somewhat reliant on a car, unless you favour pony-trekking or have the leisure for hill walking. The darker green on the hillsides in July was bracken, the distinctive red earth slipping here and there into red mud after the cloudbursts of the day before. The narrow, twisty lanes climbed hills and traversed vales embowered with dank herbage, but the views when the hedges opened up were glorious. This article is as much about a place, a tract of country, as it is about art. It is also by way of being a preview of an exhibition — George Rowlett in Wales: Capel-y-ffin Paintings 2005 — rather than the usual review, for although I saw the paintings which make up the show, I also went to Wales specifically to see the dramatic landscape which is their subject.