This month the Tower Gallery in Crickhowell is showing new works by the Brecon-based painter and printmaker Robert Macdonald.
Centrepiece of the exhibition is a large acrylic canvas celebrating the glory days of the Brecon Jazz Festival. Robert was artist in residence at the Festival years ago and although the fortunes of the event have come and gone he has continued to draw on it for artistic inspiration.
His 4’ x 4’ canvas entitled ‘Brecon Jazz – Marching Band crossing the Usk Bridge’ is semi-abstract in style although at its base is a recognisable image of Brecon Castle walls and the cathedral with red uniformed bandsman parading in the foreground. But over this space a riot of whirling paint recreates a sense of musical excitement and rhythm.
Much of Robert’s work as a painter has a celebratory quality. He is drawn to music and festivals and scenes peopled by vivid personalities (sometimes mythical).
As well as the jazz festival he has found subject matter in the Big Cheese Race at Caerphilly, in Usk Valley farm auctions, and has painted Eastern market-places (he went to Pakistan a few years ago to open an exhibition of Welsh printmaking in Lahore and also spent some time in Istanbul).
A room at the Tower Gallery is devoted mainly to small ink and watercolour paintings inspired by the animals and people seen at local agricultural shows here in the Usk Valley.
As a painter he has been influenced by Chinese and Japanese techniques of working very swiftly with calligraphic strokes, sometimes flinging his paint freely on the paper or canvas.
Dance as well as music is celebrated in his painting and the image featured on his exhibition poster is a collage based on Zulu tribal dance which he witnessed a year ago on the stage of Theatr Brycheiniog.
Robert is currently president of the Royal Watercolour Society of Wales and a year ago took an exhibition of Welsh watercolours to Iceland where the Welsh artists exhibited alongside members of the Nordic Confederation of Watercolour Societies. He and his committee have now organised a return exhibition in Wales featuring both the Welsh artists and painters from the Nordic countries which are members of the Confederation.
The venue for this major international show is to be the newly completed Y Gaer cultural hub in Brecon. Nigel Blackamore, Curator and Director of the new hub, has agreed to feature this exhibition as the opening event of the new Brecon venue, and work has already arrived from Iceland in preparation for this important artistic celebration of international relations.
Robert’s exhibition at the tower Gallery continues throughout April until May 18.