An inspirational journey
For Ralph Sanders, founder of the recently relocated F n Y Parc Gallery, hosting a major solo show by Kevin Sinnott is a major milestone in more ways than one – as he explained to Jenny White
THE latest show at the all-new F n Y Parc Gallery, which recently relocated from Llanrwst to Llandudno, has huge signi cance for gallery director Ralph Sanders. It’s his rst exhibition of Kevin Sinnott’s work, which is a major coup not only because of Sinnott’s stature within Wales and internationally, but also because he is the reason Ralph became a gallerist.
Some 23 years ago, when 29-year-old Ralph was running a furniture shop in Cardi , he visited the National Museum Cardi and encountered Sinnott’s iconic painting Running Away with the Hairdresser. Ralph was trans xed.
“It just completely blew me away,” he says. “I felt like I got it. I understood it. Often you walk around museums and get drawn to certain things – you might like the colours, the mood, the subject, but in this painting everything came together. I loved the energy in it, I loved the subject, and Kevin brings such joy and represents real-life domestic things in such an energetic, pleasurable way.
“I didn’t know anything about Kevin, or about art, but I promised myself when I turned 30 I would buy a painting by him – and I did. I can’t fully explain why I decided to put all my savings into buying one of his paintings, but I had so much pleasure from that picture, and then I got a bit obsessed and started buying more paintings by Welsh artists.”
As his passion grew, he decided to start a website called Welshart.net, and set up a room in his home for buying and selling Welsh art. en it struck him he was not enjoying his furniture shop, and he would love to sell art full-time – so he and his partner Roland Powell made a bold move: they sold up everything in Cardi , and bought a rambling Victorian villa in Llanrwst in Conwy.
at was in 2007 and, with nances tight, it was three years before they had progressed far enough with the renovations to be able to open one room as a gallery space.
Delighted with the response from visitors, they pressed on, uncovering a beautiful walled garden in the house’s grounds and converting some of the outbuildings into holiday lets. ey opened a cafe on site too, to encourage people to visit the out-of-the-way location.
e gallery initially sold 20th-century Welsh art, but then Ralph took on his rst living artist, the painter Lisa Carter, and was delighted to have a sell-out show on his hands.
“at really got my con dence going. I knew we were on to something – we had a feel for it and people seemed to enjoy what we were trying to create,” he says.
Part of the gallery’s charm was its unpretentious presentation. Rather than being a hushed white space, it had a homely, domestic feel with music playing softly in the background. As more people beat a path there, the gallery grew to be a major player in the Welsh art scene, hosting shows by the likes of Harry Holland, Sarah Carvel, Gerald Dewsbury, Malcolm Edwards, Meirion Ginsberg, Susan Gathercole, Pete Monaghan, Meinir Mathias and Rob Poynter.
But when lockdown hit, Ralph and Roland reconsidered the direction they wanted to take.
Roland, who is also a jazz singer, was weary of running the cafe, which entailed long evenings preparing food for the next day. And Ralph was keen to focus more on the art, rather than running three businesses in one. ey also wanted to separate their business from their home.
e solution presented itself on the form of a magni cent Victorian property in the heart of Llandudno, just two minutes’ walk from the seafront.
“We got the keys in around December last year and quickly had to renovate it top to bottom, reshape it and turn it back into what is now a beautiful townhouse,” says Ralph. “We’ve opened it up as an art gallery on three oors, each of which has a very di erent vibe and colour palette.”
Fortunately, the spirit of F n Y Parc survives in its new location, which is relaxed, homely and inviting.
Ralph and Roland decided to continue holding 12 major shows a year. eir Sinnott debut, which opened yesterday, features 42 paintings.
ese are mostly new pieces, but there are also some older pieces that caught Ralph’s eye when he visited Kevin’s Garw Valley studio – among them a painting of chickens titled Scratching a Living, which has personal signi cance to Sinnott as it recalls the time when he rst moved to the Garw Valley and was just getting to know the area.
“It’s good when you’re an artist as long in the tooth as I am to have someone with the genuine emotional enthusiasm of Ralph to come and pick paintings from the racks in your studio,” says Kevin.
“e old and new seem to all hang together. You could say that the new paintings are more about me than they’ve ever been before.”
One such painting – a favourite for both Kevin and Ralph – is a self-portrait titled Sue Wore a Violet Dress for Our First Date in the Cantonese in Bridgend. It depicts a modern-day Kevin juxtaposed with a painting of the young couple near a street sign that reads “Marry Me”.
Kevin’s late wife Sue is an ongoing source of inspiration in his work, which often focuses on the dynamic, loving interplay between couples.
Another example is the painting that gives the show its name – Drama in Pontycymer, which Ralph particularly likes because it echoes the famous painting that sparked his passion for art.
“It’s a beautiful painting,” he says. “It has the essence of what’s so brilliant about Kevin. It’s got the movement, it’s got the people almost ying through the air, and it’s got his hometown behind them. It addresses the typical themes of relationships – people coming together, people
I didn’t know anything about Kevin, or about art, but I promised myself when I turned 30 I would buy a painting by him – and I did
coming apart, people literally holding on to each other to get through the day-to-day dramas.”
Other pieces in the show range in size all the way to postcard proportions – and Ralph is delighted that with this exhibition, he completes the journey that began with that rst encounter with Sinnott’s work 23 years ago and begins a new