David Jones (1895-1974)

During the winter of 1924 Jones joined Eric Gill and some of his Catholic Community at the monastery of Capel-y-ffin, Abergavenny. Jones spent most of his time in Wales over the next three years painting the rugged landscape of the Black Mountains.
Dr Paul Hills comments on his work of this period: 'The move from the relaxed, ample curves of the Sussex downs ... to the irregular inflexions of the Welsh hills and coast, effected a release from the borrowed idiom in which he had been working. In an autobiographical talk he told how he discovered, between 1924 and 1926, a fruitful direction for his work, particularly under 'the impact of the strong hill-rhythms and the bright counter-rhythms of the "afonydd dyfroedd" (water-brooks).' (Exhibition catalogue, David Jones, Tate Gallery, London, 1981, p. 24).