A welsh Artist nestled in the Snowdonia Mountains - Sian Elen

Brief Biography

Sian has lived most of her life near a remote village nestled in the Snowdonia National Park. She works from her studio based at her home, a farmhouse high on the side of a mountain, with a vista of the Moelwyn mountain range all around her. Her walks take her out into the rawness of this landscape and inform her musings and insights as an artist. This is no genteel landscape with hedgerows and manicured fields, but nature in all its raw truth.

Studying Art was not high on her agenda in her earlier years, as she left university to become a HGV driver, which developed into a business partnership running a lorry on the continent. Life experience enabled her to grow in confidence and feel that she now had legitimacy to add to the content of her work which she had always felt was missing. However, during this detour in life the sketch book stayed by her side.

2005 Sian was to exhibit her first solo exhibition; the theme based on her first love of life ‘The Horse.’ in this exhibition she attempts to capture the essence of life, using energetic brushstrokes to demonstrate movement and portray a raw sense of vitality, along with a sense of connection between man and horse. She had practically grown up on horseback, her neighbour the renowned Lucy Rees author of the ‘The Horses Mind’ had taught her so much about the horse, which became her subject for many years.

Although Sian was actively exhibiting, she decided to return to studying art and joined a lifelong learning course with Bangor University, in 2011 she graduated with a BA Hons in Fine Art.

In 2016 Sian collaborated with film and language company Gwefys, to capture the village of Croesor. Archiving through film, 2D and 3D the lives and livelihoods of residents that will soon be lost. This was exhibited at Plas Tan y Bwlch and followed on to Oriel Caffi Croesor.

Recently Sian received a Welsh Arts Research and Development Grant. To help fund the early stages of an exciting new project involving Roots.