Elba Mosaic Memorial

By Community Group – Artbreak, Gowerton Primary School and Glynn Vivian Welcome: Mosaics

Discovering artists from the Glynn Vivian Permanent Collection:

Cedric Morris, Ernest Neuschul, Valerie Ganz, Edward Duncan, Gerald Saunders, Josef Herman & George Chapman

Glynn Vivian Associate Artist, Tina Grant, has been working with participants from her community outreach groups, Artbreak Gowerton, Cockett and Waunarlwydd, to explore paintings by artists working with the industrial landscape of South Wales.

The initial inspiration for this project comes from a painting in Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection, Lougher from Penclawdd, by Cedric Morris. It depicts a view from Gowerton across the Lougher estuary and further on towards Llanelli.

We would like to thank participants in the project for all their hard work:

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery’s Welcome: Mosaic

Gowerton ArtBreak

Linda D | Lynne | Sue J | Pam | Ros | Linda M | Joy | Sue | Cecillia | Ena | Sandra | Zarah | Rachel | Beth | Ken | Liz | Jan

Cockett ArtBreak

Waunarlwydd ArtBreak

Years 5 and 6 pupils (2025) from Gowerton Primary School and Susan Jones (County Councillor for Gowerton).

About the Project

Edward Duncan: Cockle Gathering. Ink on paper.

Glynn Vivian Associate Artist, Tina Grant, has been working with participants from her community outreach groups, Artbreak, in a project inspired by CELF, National Contemporary Art Gallery for Wales.

The groups took initial inspiration from the works of Cedric Morris from Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection, and in particular, Loughour From Penclawdd (1936), to create their own versions of this work in a variety of media.

The groups used collage to recreate the painting, providing participants with the opportunity to look closely at the artwork. It was noted that the painting depicts heavy industry on the far side of the estuary, which has all but disappeared.

Following these initial creative sessions, one participant went to the suspected site from where the artist sat and completed his work. She took photographs and maps and brought them along to the group. This identification of the area highlighted the artistic license used by Cedric Morris when completing this work. A lot of discussion took place within the groups as to why he may have done this. The most noted omission in the painting were the mudflats in the estuary, which was renowned for its’ cockle beds.

Conversations led to the fact that cockle picking, historically done by the women in the family, is now a male dominated industry. Today, the men ride four-wheel drive vehicles and jet skis…replacing the wonderful donkeys which, along with the smaller children, helped the women carry the cockles home. The donkeys were revered by the families. They not only helped with the labour, but also alerted the pickers to the incoming tide.

Gerald Saunders: Cockle Pickers. Acrylic on board.

Ernest Neuschul: Cockle Woman. 1940.

Oil on canvas. Cockle Picker. Oil on board.

These discussions led to the most enjoyable and entertaining art sessions – celebrating the donkey! The nickname ‘Donks’ for people from Penclawdd led to a discussion of other local nicknames and their origins:

Penclawdd residents were known as ‘Donks’ because of their use of donkeys.

The inhabitants of Gowerton were known as ‘Starches’ referring to the white-collar management workers, who inhabited the area and wore stiffly starched white collars.

In Waunarlwydd, traditionally a sheep farming area, the people were known as the ‘Rams’, which is still the name of their rugby team.

Swansea people are known as ‘Jacks’, after the renowned seafarers or ‘Jack Tars’ who would sail around the world importing copper from Chile and Cuba.

Returning to the painting, the groups discussed what else had disappeared. Using ‘memories’ as a theme, the participants recreated the things that their grandchildren would never see and that have been lost in living memories: Telephone boxes, milk churn platforms, water troughs and pumps, everyday shops, banks and post offices, milkmen, coalmen, collieries, heavy industries in the area – some of these things have ripped the hearts out of their communities.

Many drew pictures of coalmen, collieries and miners. This led to the discussion about the Elba Mining Disaster in 1905, which happened in a mine halfway between Penclawdd and Gowerton. This incident killed 11 men – the youngest being a 14 year old boy. A relative to one of those killed lives nearby and is part of the group.

Josef Herman: Two miners against a lamp post. c1944-55. Oil on Canvas.

Valeries Ganz: Coaling in G8. 1986. Oil on Canvas.

Josef Herman: Pithead, Three Miners. 1945. Painting, ink and watercolour on paper.

Josef Herman: At the Seam 1945. 1945. Painting ink and watercolour on paper.

George Chapman: Miners going Home. 1960’s. Print, etching on paper.

The groups found that a memorial to this disaster was in a very poor state of repair which initiated a desire to replace it.

Discussions with the Glynn Vivian team, the gallery’s Welcome: Mosaic Group and Gowerton Primary School, led to a plan to replace the existing memorial plaque.

Working with the school, participants from Artbreak and the Glynn Vivian’s Welcome: Mosaic Group a design which would be made into a mosaic.

School children at Gowerton Primary designed and created the top half of the mosaic in colour, to reflect the area as we see it today.

The Artbreak group created charcoal drawings based on their own memories and paintings from the Glynn Vivian Permanent Collection, which were then used to create a collaborative image in black and white, representing the mining heritage buried beneath our feet.

Finally, with the half-completed mosaic delivered to the gallery, the Welcome Mosaic group worked every Friday on turning the black and white design into a fully realized mosaic, hand cutting each ceramic shard and attaching to the 8×4 plywood board over the course of 6 months.

Details from the mosaic

Over several months, all three groups have been learning new skills, to create their design in a large-scale mosaic artwork, led by the Gallery’s learning team.

The final mosaic will be unveiled at St John’s Church, Gowerton, by Swansea’s Lord Mayor on 10 March 2026. The site has been given a new lease of life, and it is hoped, will be enjoyed by many generations in the years to come.

Detail from the mosaic

The final artwork, featuring the Gowerton of today and the Gowerton of a century ago was installed in February 2026 and officially opened to the public in March.

About the Artist:

Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet (11 December 1889 – 8 February 1982) was a British artist, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea, but worked mainly in East Anglia. Morris was a direct descendant of the Robert Morris, the Swansea-based industrialist who established one of the largest copper smelting businesses in the Swansea Valley in the 18^th Century. The copper industry was largely responsible for the destruction of the natural environment in the Swansea Valley. Cedric Morris was a great advocate for nature and spent much of his life producing new plants and is as well known horticulturally as he is artistically. Morris often went painting in his native South Wales, and in 1935 at the time of the Depression was moved by the plight of the people of South Wales Valleys. He is best known for his post-impressionist representation of flowers, still lifes, landscapes and portraits in strong bold colours. The gallery owns two of his works, Llandmadoc Hill and Margarets Pots.

This project is part of Swansea Stories, an Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund project that invites new voices to tell the story of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery collection.

The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund is run by the Museums Association, funding projects that develop collections to achieve social impact.

About the Project

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