Gallery: Barbara Matthews

About the Frongoch and Wemyss Series

In my work I aim to create a resonance, a sense of time, of place of what might have been and what was and is. I do not see my paintings as landscapes in the simple sense, although based around that which is visible I aim to evoke what lies beneath the surface both physically and metaphorically. They are expressive symbolic allegories of the lives lived, time spent, that which has brought us to where we are now and the that which will influence where we will go from here. Forgotten and remembered, truths, lies and perceptions.

Ostensibly based around the almost forgotten industrial past of the mountains of Ceredigion in Mid Wales, these paintings allude to attitudes and approaches to people, place and environment that have occurred and will occur throughout space and time.

This series of works are based around the ruins and remains of Lead Mines close to my home. The scale of the operation was staggering, blinkered men of vision moulded the landscape into a giant machine to power huge and extensive underground workings. Men, women and children worked in horrendous conditions for long hours. The detritus from the mines loaded with toxic heavy metals was dumped in heaps so inhospitable that even after a hundred years virtually nothing grows on them (the landscape as Sleeping Beauty). Venture capitalists and shareholders invested, made and lost fortunes without a thought for the effects their money had. Once the assets were stripped the money markets moved on and the landscape and people were left but this brief flurry left its marks on landscape and society.

In these paintings I incorporate pages from an old Welsh Bible that was thrown away, an unwanted relic imbued with meaning representing the importance of language and religion in bringing us to where we are now. The early printing of Welsh language bibles and the importance of this in the development of non-conformist religion and the building of Chapels has left its mark. Non-conformism played its part in political and societal changes. The Chapels crumble or are converted into dwellings, the language thrives but even this creates divisions, is good, bad or indifferent depending on your perspective.

I use a range of textured greys in these paintings these are evocative of the extensive heaps of debris removed from the mines, which still leach heavy metals into the water course and provide endless fun and toxic clouds of dust for off road vehicle users of various types. They have a certain bleak beauty of their own and are a memorial to the environmental policies of unbridled capitalism – past, present and future, here, there and everywhere. Greys are subtle and beautiful, initially they can appear dull and uninteresting but further examination rewards the viewer and the artist with an understanding of the interrelations between colour tone and shade. They can be silvery and magical like a moonlight night, dark and oppressive like a poorly lit tunnel or restful and soothing like sunlight on water..

Metallic paint symbolizes the lead, zinc and small amounts of silver and gold extracted from the structure of the mountains. I use it to represent these buildings in their role as cathedrals to acquisition. On misty days the ruins evoke the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich but these are the remnants of Victorian capitalism rather than a superseded religion.