This summer, we made a couple of day trips out to the seaside visiting Borth and Ynyslas; this week’s highlighted Designer Desire artist lives & works on this part of the Welsh coast.
Originally from Oldham in Greater Manchester, Muriel Delahaye moved to Borth around 50 years ago.
She described herself as a figurative artist.
In the mid 1970s, Delahaye won the MOMA Tabernacle Art Competition the theme that year was “The Sea! The Sea!” The subject of her winning painting was from the 7-part Greek book, Anabasis by Xenophon. It’s one of the paintings she has kept in her own possession. It was after this success that she began to concentrate on figures in a coastal landscape; she can actually see the beach from her studio.
Growing up in Oldham, our trips to the seaside were always a great event. I have always loved the sea, and the landscape around Borth is fantastic. It’s such a change from living in Oldham, which was full of people and had no landscape whatsoever. In an industrial town you don’t stop and say, ‘Oh what a wonderful sunset.’ You’re surrounded by people all the time; people coming from work, going to work, people talking about people. Coming to Wales I’ve found I have the best of both worlds – I’ve got the background of people plus the wonderful landscape to incorporate with it.
A lot of Welsh artists concentrate on landscape without figures but for me the figures are important. I’m interested in figures in the landscape, and how they’re reacting to that landscape or to whatever situation they find themselves in.
I concentrate on the people – they give me my ideas – but the sea often sets the atmosphere. I live opposite the sea and that’s the first thing I see in the morning when I get up and its always different – I love looking at it. Walesonline
Original works can be bought from Oriel Mimosa Gallery in Llandeilo and Oriel Tir A Môr Gallery, Borth. Prints and greeting cards can be bought from Delahaye’s own website.
UPDATE: Muriel passed away peacefully at her home in Borth on Friday 4th December 2020.
All images: Muriel Delahaye©
Additional image credit:
The Wales Weekly