John Petts (1914-1991) was a London-born painter, wood engraver, lino-cutter and stained glass artist.

In 1937, Petts and his first wife, Brenda Chamberlain, (whom he met while they were both students at the Royal Academy) bought a hand press and founded Caseg Press at Ty’r mynydd, Llanllechid, Caenarvonshire. They drew on the dramatic landscape of Snowdonia for its inspiration. Initially, they produced Christmas cards and later illustrations for periodicals such as The Welsh Review (1939–1948).

Following a bombing in 1963 of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama by Ku Klux Klan members which killed four black girls attending Sunday school, Petts vowed to design and produce a replacement. After successfully raising funds from tens of thousands of people in Wales with the help of a front-page campaign by Western Mail newspaper, Petts delivered the finished window to the church in 1965.

Published in 2000, John Petts and the Caseg Press by Alison Smith is the first monograph of the artist.

In 1979, he designed the stained glass window, The Desert Shall Rejoice and Blossom followed by, in 1987, The Tree of Life both situated in the Church of St Peter, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire.

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Additional image credits:

Art UK | Martin Tinney Gallery | Stained Glass in Wales