100-year-old artist Charles is still making masterpieces
A SMALL, innocuous looking flat on Llandaff Road hides a treasure trove of art.
The walls are covered in paintings and there’s a pile of intricately made models.
It’s only on closer inspection that you see they are made from bottle tops, Jenga and domino pieces.
Charles Byrd is 100 years old, and must be one of the city’s oldest artists. His paintings, created over 75 years, have won national acclaim.
They have been exhibited throughout Wales and the UK and two of his constructions were bought by the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum in the US.
A huge volume of his works were donated to Cardiff council and about 30 are on display at County Hall.
For 30 years, his larger pieces were shown at the Old Library in Cardiff and the exhibition became known as “The Charles Byrd Museum of Magical Machines”. When the library closed many of his works were put into storage.
In 2008, when the National Eisteddfod visited Cardiff, an exhibition of his work brought together as many of his works as could be traced. Most recently, he completed a painting for Wales star Joe Ledley for his wedding day.
“I like to think that my art developed,” he said “I started painting realistic pictures from 1950 to 1960. I donated a lot of my work to Cardiff council. In 1965 I decided to develop my kinetic art and did that until 1995.”
Now, Charles’ work is focused on building and painting models made from things he finds in second-hand shops.
He said: “I go down to the second-hand shops to find bits and pieces. I look out for towers of Jenga and dominoes to use for building.”
Mr Byrd remembers meeting one of the most famous visitors that the city has seen – by accident.
He said: “I was on Queen Street and there was a huge crowd outside the Park Hotel. I mingled with the crowd and the most of the people I was surrounded by came from Holland and said the were waiting for Nelson Mandela.
“Five minutes later he came out and he shook a few people’s hands. When he came to me he shook my hand. I told him the people next to me were from Holland.
“You could tell Nelson was on the ball, he turned to them and asked them how Queen Juliana was!”