The human figure has featured in my work as an artist for a long time.
It has taken the form of portraits, self-portraits, figures based on self-portraits, group portraits, nudes and imagined figures.
!['Bryn', acrylic over plaster, 31.5 x 17 x 23.5 cm (1985)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT_Bryn_1_SS.jpg)
In the 1980s, I produced portraits mainly of friends, ranging from my first oil painting – of Jenny (produced in Florence in 1981) – to a plaster bust of the life model Bryn and two acrylic paintings on board of Neil and Julia (all three of which were produced in Aberystwyth in 1985-86) and, finally, a set of oils of four young women artists in Tuscany (1989-90), most notably Sara Fanelli (who subsequently has become a well-known artist and illustrator in Britain).
!['Women Artists in Tuscany series: Sara Fanelli' oil on lined board, 35 x 45 cm (1990)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SaraFanelli.byCeriThomas.jpg)
In the early 1990s, I began to produce portraits of significant Welsh figures: a time-inspired triple portrait in mixed media of Ingrid Surgenor (piano accompanist for Cardiff Singer of the World);
!['Ingrid Surgenor: Piano Accompanist' conte pastel and watercolour on paper, 75 x 110 cm (1991)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT_Ingrid_SS.jpg)
a life-size, full length oil of Colin Jackson (110m high hurdler and world record holder in 1993);
!['Colin Jackson: Sprint Hurdler' oil on lined board, 183 x 114 cm (1991/93)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Colin.Jackson.CT_.png)
a space-time based triple portrait of Robert Thomas (sculptor) which was given the prefix title ‘Angelo-Oviri’.
!['Angelo - Oviri: The Sculptor' oil on board, 75 x 95 cm (1996-98)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT_Sculptor_SS.jpg)
More recently I captured the late Grace Williams (composer) and the almost nonagenarian Charles Fisher (writer and friend of Dylan Thomas).
!['Grace Mary Williams: Composer' oil on board, 59 x 79 cm (2001-02)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT-NLW-0200401378.jpg)
!['Charles Fisher: Writer' conte pastel on paper, 50 x 40 cm (2003-04)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/4628768-232x300.jpg)
All of these works do not aim at likeness alone but attempt to say something more about the sitter and culture.
This also applies to my self-portraits which were not intended to be a series at the outset but have grown into just that. The kicking-off point was my double self-portrait ‘Ceri XXV: Discordant Winter / Harmonious Summer’ (1983-84). It began as a single, winter portrait which was subsequently complemented by a second, summer one. These were then set into a single, bespoke frame which incorporated text. This piece was followed by my ‘Self-Portrait in Florence’ (1989) painted using oil tempera.
!['Self-Portrait in Florence' oil tempera on lined board, 60 x 50 cm (1989)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SelfPort.jpg)
A second double-portrait ensued, once again initially planned as a single image. This is ‘Tŷ-tea, Guard-gardd’ (1996-98), its punning, bilingual title partly a result of my having moved to Swansea. Originally, it carried the subtitle ‘Devolution Wales’. Recently, it acquired the replacement subtitle ‘Weak or Strong?’.
!['Ty-tea, Guard-gardd' watercolour and pencil on paper, 64 x 90 cm (1996-98)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT_Ty-tea_SS.jpg)
The images on paper ‘Revelation’ and ‘Reflection’ – designed as a pair in 2001 – and ‘Pererin: The Traveller’ (2002) represent yet more examples of me using myself not only as a model but also as a site or metaphor.
!['Revelation' conte pastel on paper (2001)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CTRevelation-21-204x300.jpg)
!['Reflection' pencil and charcoal on paper (2001)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CTReflection-11-202x300.jpg)
!['Pererin: The Traveller' conte pastel and watercolour on paper, 63 x 52 cm (2002)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT_The_Traveller_SS.jpg)
The oils on board ‘Man for All Seasons’ (2009-11) and ‘Tillerman’ (2010-11) are cases in point, the latter acquiring the subtitle ‘Green and Dying’ in 2014.
!['Man for All Seasons' oil on board, 70 x 50 cm (2009-11)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT.ManforAllSeasons.1-223x300.jpg)
!['Man for All Seasons' oil on board, 70 x 50 cm (2009-11)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT.Tillerman.GreenDying-240x300.jpg)
Two works on paper also take myself as a starting point. The one figure wears a ‘Wild November Beast’ hat made by the feltmaker Barbara Keal which I bought at the Mission Gallery Swansea. The other supports a pair of allegorical, giving and taking, garden blackbirds.
!['Endangered Species - working title' conte pastel on paper, 55 x 40 cm (2014)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_0673-225x300.jpg)
!['Life Support' (2015) conte pastel and charcoal on watercolour paper, 75 x 56 cm](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_0998-765x1024.jpg)
My final category, of single or group portraits of real or imagined figures, began in the mid 1980s with ‘Aberystwyth: Dolphin’s Eye View’ (the picture is now in Bardi, Italy with its Welsh-Italian owners) and ‘Cartoon of Contemporary Wales’ (which was shown at the 1984 Lampeter National Eisteddfod).
!['Cartoon of Contemporary Wales' watercolour and ink on paper (1984)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Ceri-Wales-scan-large-1024x683.jpg)
![](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/fullsizeoutput_3c1-1024x768.jpeg)
Examples since then include the oil on board ‘Cycladic Tourism’ (1992), the watercolour and pencil ‘Sculptor Dreaming’ (2000) and the pair of watercolours ‘Pen-y-Bwlch’ and ‘Pen Tair Carn’ (both 2013).
Almost all of my figure pictures are also dealing with notions of real and imagined Place.
![Cycladic Tourism](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_3002-scaled.jpeg)
!['Pen-y-Bwlch' watercolour on paper (2013)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT.Pen_.y.Bwlch_.2-300x300.jpg)
!['Pen Tair Carn' watercolour on paper (2013)](http://cerithomasart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CT.Pen_.Taircarn.2-300x297.jpg)
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