a seer of strange beauties, a museum visit
🖼️ I'm doing Blaugust this year. This is 4/hopefully 31 posts in August, about a visit to an art exhibit I started in June 2026.
Back in June I got the train to Cardiff to visit Strange Beauties, an exhibit of the artist Gwen John's work at Cardiff Museum.
A view from the upper floor of Cardiff Museum
I'm not sure how well know she is outside of Wales - she was a Welsh artist born in 1876, who lived most of her life in France. I visited the Cardiff Museum a lot as child (I have very fond memories of it and it was very nostalgic to be back) and am vaguely familiar with her and her more famous brother, Augustus John.
The title of the exhibit comes from a quote from Gwen, where she described herself as a: "seer of strange beauties". The exhibit contains her sketches and some letters and diary entries, really focusing on her process and inner life. She had an interesting personal life (including an affair with the sculptor, Rodin) but this exhibit focused on her artistic process.
She did a lot of sketches of the same subjects. The exhibit made a parallel between this and devotional practice; Gwen John became a Catholic after moving to France around 1904, where she remained for most of the rest of her life.
A painting of a nun
I love the way the habit was painted in the picture of the Nun above. According to the exhibit, later in her art career Gwen moved away from techniques she'd learned in art school and started a technique she called "blobbing", which involved using thicker paint in a more abstract style.
The following are some quotes for the exhibition signage, talking about her process and her own notes on her craft.
John's writings reveal an almost scientific approach to making art. She separates the processes of "observation" and "execution" and associates the quality of "strangeness" with a practice of close looking. Her note suggests an effort to undo ingrained ways of seeing and to focus instead on what is unfamiliar. Quote from museum sign
1921 April Method of observation.
- The strangeness
- colour 3. tones
- per. form Method of execution
- observation of the 4 points 2. mixing of colours 3. lines in pensil for eye training
- background 5. painting of per. forms out of background Extract from Gwen John's notebook
John described herself privately as "God's instrument", claiming divine inspiration for her work. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, she created a vast number of drawings and watercolours based on a popular prayer card depicting Saint Therese of Lisieux and her sister, Celine. Also known as the little flower, Therese taught a spiritual practice called the Little Way, which recognised the holiness of small, everyday acts and things. This idea resonates with the Welsh Saint David's teaching to "do the small things". Quote from museum sign
I didn't take any pictures of these drawings of Saint Therese and her sister mentioned above, but the museum has a page on them here. (Although I think the attempt by the Welsh museum to shoe-horn St David in there is a little off-topic lol).
Woman sitting with a cat - a common subject for Gwen John was a woman, half in profile, sat near a window.
Studies of the congregation in Church - I found these so charming.
The exhibit is currently at the National Galleries Scotland, and if you visit the exhibition page here it contains some more examples of her art.
I found her interesting as a woman who was allowed to live her own life - she was educated, she travelled, while she certainly suffered unhappiness in her life she seemed to have a great commitment to her creative practice and freedom to do that. Although she had little money towards the end of her life, she had an American patron for a lot of her career.
I really loved looking at her art. I love to see observational sketches and hers are so skilful and full of life. Her notes on observing the "strangeness" of the everyday and how this intersects with her preoccupation with St Therese, and the practice of recognising "the holiness" in everyday objects and actions are so interesting to me.
Have to photograph any silly cat drawings in an art gallery