This watercolour and gouache on paper is by quarryman painter J. T. Parry. The painting emphasises the geology of Cwm Idwal and its scale is demonstrated by the two fishermen out on the lake in a small boat.
John Thomas Parry was born in 1853 at Chwarel Goch, Tre-garth, near Bethesda, one of seven children. John Parry, like many boys of his time, worked at the Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda, and one of his pastimes, whenever he had the opportunity, was creating paintings in watercolour on pieces of slate and then selling them for a few shillings each.
. T. Parry appears in census lists as an artist / landscape painter. So, he either sold sufficient works to earn a reasonable living and maintain a family or his art was supported by some other employment. It has been said that his paintings made such an impression on Lady Penrhyn that she offered to pay for him to be trained professionally at a School of Art.
His known dated works are from the 1880s up until his death. Many of his paintings are found in Dyffryn Ogwen, and beyond, as well as in Penrhyn Castle and the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. More often than not, J. T. Parry would add ‘Ap Idwal’ after his name at the bottom of his paintings. He is not the only artist working in the area or to have adopted a Welsh ‘ffugenw’ to sign his works; Peter Lord has documented many of the contemporary itinerant and artisan painters of north Wales such as William Roos and Hugh Hughes in his studies. Another ‘untrained’ artist, J.J. Dodd was working in Bangor.
His subjects were invariably found in Dyffryn Ogwen, and although he began life as a quarry worker he generally avoided the slate tips or other evidence of the Penrhyn quarry as subject matter. His preferred subjects, those he found he could sell, were views of mountains and the Ogwen river, rather than Bethesda’s terraces, streets or bustling life – but very often a small, awkwardly drawn figure, a fisherman perhaps, is placed as human presence, in the mid-distance.
J. T. Parry died in 1913, at the Workhouse Hospital, Bangor, and is buried in an unmarked grave in Coetmor Cemetery, Bethesda.
This painting is currently on display in the foyer at Storiel.
Taken from text written by Jeremy Yates, 2021.