Ray (or Rosemary) Howard-Jones painted atmospheric landscapes of the coastline and islands of south Wales, mostly around Penarth and Pembrokeshire, often in gouache. Her work was inspired by a deep, almost spiritual appreciation of nature.
Howard-Jones was born to Welsh parents in Berkshire but spent her childhood in Penarth with her grandparents. After attending school locally, in 1920 she studied at the Slade School of Art. Still in London in her thirties, she had her first solo exhibition in 1935 but health problems stalled her career leading to a stint painting lampshades in a lamp factory. Returning to Penarth, she worked at National Museum Cardiff producing archaeological drawings for publications. Later in her career she also produced medical illustrations.
Though not an official war artist, during the Second World War Howard-Jones was commissioned to paint the fortifications on the Bristol Channel islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm. She also captured boats in Penarth and Cardiff docks preparing to leave for the D-Day landings. With her Penarth home damaged by bombs, Howard-Jones returned to London in 1947 but would visit Wales each summer. From 1948 to 1959, she and her partner, photographer Raymond Moor, served as summer caretakers at Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire where she painted some of her best-known works.
Also a muralist and mosaicist, in 1958 Howard-Jones won a national competition to produce a large-scale mosaic for the Western Mail offices in Cardiff: An Eye for the People, which was demolished in 2008. Her wide-ranging artistic activities reveal the challenges facing women artists in the mid-twentieth century, a fact also reflected in her chosen name, which did not reveal her gender.
Mari Griffith is an art historian who has worked in the field of museums and galleries for 30 years, developing and overseeing learning and interpretation provision for public art collections and exhibitions, including at the National Gallery, National Gallery of Art and Royal Academy of Arts. Following a period working internationally on art and heritage interpretation, she is now a freelance writer, editor and translator – focusing mostly on art.
