Our Gallery has been named for our colleague, Theatre Trustee and friend, Marie. It was created in 2000 as a testimony of our admiration and love for her, and in gratitude for the wonderful support and encouragement she gave to the Theatre, and all its performing and creative artists, over 20 years, until her death from cancer in 1999. Without Marie our theatre would never have survived the so stormy and precarious years.
Panel for Marie – Caroley Bergman
Specially designed and created by Caroley, the panel, Dream of Peace with its white ribbons is a variation of the Tree of Life theme, and echoes shapes and moods depicting the meandering path of life, and two crescent shapes – the ebb and flow of the waxing and waning moons. Featured here is the winter holly of Marie’s home Llwyncelyn (Hollybush) intertwined with the bluebells she so loved, signifying the spring of new life.
Portrait of Marie – Simon Barnes
The portrait shows no figure. It is a peace-filled vision of Marie’s home, Llwyncelyn, and her skills and joys. She was a fantastic chef; a superb hostess, she adored her garden, and reading – there is a book on the chair; her garden one side a carpet of bluebells, and the other vibrant flowers, both reflections of her grace and vivacity, and in the mists of the house, the image of Ayres rock, and a small ‘coracle’ to escape to her homeland Australia.
The Gallery displays paintings, mosaics and carvings in ivy, and there is a mural we named:
A DREAM OF PEACE.
Peace is prominent in the mural of clowns. A series of child-like experiences are depicted, enacted by clowns. The stories children love, reflected in the figures in the clouds; homage to artists Dali, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh – to writers: Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Exupery – and a series of quotes on happiness – that most elusive state. But above the scenes of the idyllic home, the pussy rescued from the well, the Punch and Judy – above all, Stuka planes threaten.
It is, alas, only a Dream of Peace, where the dream is fragmented and confused, and the artist clings to childhood comforts, but senses above him and below him, where fire burns the clown – an inevitable, ultimate destruction of the creative peaceful world..
PRIVATE VIEW? If you are planning to visit Llandovery, on holiday, and would like to see over the Theatre Gallery, let us know by emailing us – well in advance – and we will make every effort to show you around for a private view.