By: MACDONALD, Robert (1935-)

Acq. Number: 722

Dimensions: 77 x 60 cm, in frame 100 x 81 cm

Artwork_Medium: watercolour on paper

Purchased: 2002

Buyer: WAKELIN, Dr Peter

Location: Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum

Town: Aberystwyth

Notes: Robert Macdonald is known for his watercolours of the Breconshire countryside, which have featured in the prestigious Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. He attended the Central School of Art before beginning a career as a diplomatic correspondent, and returned to the Royal College in his forties. His images exist on different levels. On one, they are representations of known landscapes, particularly the Usk Valley around Penpont, where he lives; but on another they are meditative and mystical in their expression of the turning of the seasons, the passage of time, and the continuity of human presence. This painting is conceived as a circle around a tree of life, with kites, people, sheep and tractors spinning around the flowering centrepiece with its nesting bird. In their interests, their symbolism and their medium, his paintings recall the work of David Jones at Capel-y-ffin, but they are uniquely bold in colouring and fresh in imagery.