R.S. Thomas
The poet RS Thomas is celebrated in his native Wales by two Literary Festivals, both based on churches where he served as the parish priest, Eglwysfach and Aberdaron. For the 2019 festivals I produced a set of charcoal drawings illustrating lines from his poetry. Many of the images were based on places in Wales he had known well and which I visited to get a sense of the place to, hopefully, reflect in the artwork. Here is a selection of the drawings.
To live in Wales is to be conscious
At dusk of the spilled blood
That went to the making of the wild sky
— Welsh Landscape
Here is no sound
In the darkness but the sound of a man
Breathing, testing his faith
On emptiness, nailing his questions
One by one, to an untenanted cross
— In Church
Who said to the trout
You shall die on Good Friday
To be food for a man
And his pretty lady?
It was I, said God
— Pisces
Come to Wales
To be buried; the undertaker
Will arrange it for you
— Welcome to Wales
Moments of great calm
Kneeling before an altar
Of wood in a stone church
In summer, waiting for the God
To speak
— Kneeling
Dear parents,
I forgive you my life
Begotten in a drab town
— Sorry
Walking under a waned moon
to hear the barn owl cry: Treason
— Passage
God is in the throat of a bird
— The Minister
In a church porch on an evening in winter, the moon rising, the frost sharp, he was driven to his knees and for no reason he knew
— The Porch