Neil Pinkett - the Mountains and Quarries of North Wales

The Great Atlantic presents a collection of paintings by Neil Pinkett featuring "The Mountains and Quarries of North Wales" at The Slate Valley Museum, Granville, NY from Friday April 2nd.

Twll du (Devil’s Kitchen) and the Glyder range above Llyn Idwal, Bethesda
23” x 34” oil on canvas board

The mountains of Britain’s North Wales region are more closely linked to the rolling hills of Vermont, Upstate New York and Pennsylvania than the width of the Atlantic Ocean might imply.

The Cambrian (Welsh) massif was connected to the same northeast to southwest trending mountain belt that runs from Norway, through Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland, reappearing in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and down the Appalachian Mountain chain along the east coast of the United States. This remnant mountain range predated the present Atlantic Ocean by many millions of years and was created by tectonic plate collisions in the Ordovician and Silurian periods of geological time.

Great thicknesses of compressed sediments, ejected volcanic lavas and ashes and once buried granite masses have been indurated by the passage of up to 500 million years. And several periods of intense glaciation have sculptured the landscapes of these ancient mountains on both sides of the Atlantic.

In particular, valuable outcrops of high quality slate have been worked in North Wales and in the states of Maine, New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania and from this, a cultural connection has arisen. Among nineteenth century immigrants from all over Europe were significant numbers of slate quarry workers from North Wales.

So, take a mixture of ancient mountain structures, slate and other valuable rock deposits, add an episode or two of glacial erosion and introduce one of Britain’s leading landscape oil-painters and you get a heady brew. Concentrating on elements of “The Mountains and Quarries of North Wales”, Cornish-born artist Neil Pinkett has painted not just the landscape of the region, but its homes, fields and work places, evoking strong images of one of the root cultures of the American Northeast.

Michael Jay, The Great Atlantic Map Works Gallery,
St Just-in-Penwith, Cornwall. St David’s Day 2004

Looking down the Llanberis Pass beneath
Carreg Wasted 18” x 24” oil on canvas board

A nameless quarry near Cadair Idris
18” x 24” oil on canvas board

Pont y Gromlech (Gromlech bridge), Llanberis Pass
24” x 18” oil on canvas board

Farm cottages near Blaenau Ffestiniog
18” x 24” oil on canvas board

“To paint a country is to see it for the first time. A lot of my childhood vacations were spent in North Wales visiting my cousins, but travelling through this part of the world as an artist has proved to be a seminal experience. Lake, mountain, deserted quarry - its all astoundingly beautiful.”

Neil Pinkett. Newlyn, Cornwall, March 2004

Neil Pinkett in his studio

NEIL PINKETT was born in 1958 in Britain’s most westerly town, St Just-in-Penwith, near Land’s End, Cornwall. He trained in graphic design and worked for several years as a freelance illustrator before taking the path that has established him as a leading British landscape oil painter. He lives in the ancient Cornish town of Penzance and works from his studio in the nearby fishing port of Newlyn.

Thanks to Catherine Thomas for advice on the Welsh language