Photography and Design

Photography and design for books, leaflets and interpretative material.

Stained Glass Research

Links for research concerning stained glass in churches in Wales.

Saints' Cults in Wales

Major research projects editing medieval Welsh and Latin texts about saints in Wales.

Detail of woodwork at Hafod.
Stained glass at Llanwenllwyfo.
Scene from the Life of St Winifrede, at Holywell.

Sulien Books

art and craft, ancient and modern

News and events

Welsh Saints from Welsh Churches

New book published 2023

I have been working on a short project with Christian Ryan at Swansea College of Art on the collections at the college and elsewhere in Wales. This will help to make the collections in Swansea more visible online in the future.

I was delighted to contribute to an excellent conference on Revivalism at the Welsh School of Architecture (Cardiff) in February, followed by a conference on medieval Wales at Aberystwyth. In March I was invited to give the St Davids Day lecture at Swansea College of Art, speaking about the development of my own practice alongside some images of St David.

In April I designed a book with colleagues at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies for the Curious Travellers project. This accompanies an exhibition, which I also designed the information panels for, at Greenfield Valley Heritage Park near Holywell. I will be joining the project to speak at an evening event in May at Whitford church, and recently set up a web page for the church as part of a strategy to make it into a Heritage Hub for the area.

I was recently invited to speak at St Bride's, Pembrokeshire, for the Coastlands Local History Group in June.

 

Emblems of the Past: saints, stained glass and early medieval antiquities

Seminar for the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth, October 2023.

Watch on Youtube

Stained glass at Coychurch Crematorium.Capturing the Moment Symposium, Swansea

A day symposium at Swansea College of Art was held on 25 November 2023 to reflect on the stained glass archives in Swansea College of Art and elsewhere in Wales. Speakers included Dr Jasmine Allen (Stained Glass Museum, Ely), Dr Reinhard Köpf (Heritage Department, Mönchengladbach) and some of the major figures in British architectural stained glass artists who trained or taught on the Stained Glass course in Swansea.

Alexander Beleschenko, Amber Hiscott and Rodney Bender recalled their time in Swansea College of Art in a panel discussion, as well as the German artists who were invited over to Swansea by Tim Lewis, head of the stained glass course from 1972 until 1995.

A visit to see the stained glass at Coychurch Crematorium took place on the following day, when Roger Hayman, Rodney Bender, Alex Beleschenko and Christian Ryan spoke about their work for the crematorium. I will be producing a book about the stained glass at Coychurch Crematorium in 2024.

 

Cover of Stained Glass in Fishguard.Saints and Stained Glass for the Ports, Past and Present project

In the closing months of the Ports, Past and Present project I published books on stained glass in two of the port towns that were the focus of the project.

Cover of Stained Glass on Holy Island, Anglesey.Stained Glass in Fishguard was produced in association with St Mary’s in Fishguard and includes stained glass from churches in the town, a panel in the town library, and stained glass from churches in Goodwick and Manorowen. Copies are available from the church or from Sulien Books.

A second book included stained glass from churches in Holyhead and from othr churches on Holy Island. It was launched with a walking tour of the windows on 1 July 2023, beginning at the Maritime Museum where two windows from St Seiriol’s, demolished in the 1990s, are now on display. More about these books can be found on the Stained Glass from Welsh Churches blog.

A series of heritage stories relating to stained glass and journeys of the saints across the Irish Sea are found as an online tour on the project website.

 

Cover of Welsh Saints from Welsh Churches.Welsh Saints from Welsh Churches

Welsh Saints from Welsh Churches is my first major book since Stained Glass from Welsh Churches was published in 2014. It illustrates the imagery of Welsh saints found in churches in Wales from the medieval period and up to the present day, revealing a wealth of imagery since the mid-nineteenth century that has not been studied before.

The book is illustrated in full colour throughout and takes a journey around Wales to cathedrals and churches large and small in city centres, quiet suburbs, towns, villages and lonely fields. Some are now closed, but at a time when communities are working hard to ensure that their churches remain open for worship and for visitors, the book is a timely reminder of the artistic treasures that can be found in places of worship in Wales.

 

 

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Research projects

I have worked on a series of research projects at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies since 1999, including the Visual Culture of Wales; Imaging the Bible in Wales; the Cult of Saints in Wales and Ports, Past and Present.