The Life Histories of Five Contemporary Welsh Women Artists: The Interweaving of Art into Living and Living into Art

This book demonstrates the value and achievement of a group of artists who are usually neglected by art historians and critics because they are female. The purpose of this book is to make public the lives and works of women artists who until recently have been little known because of marginalization due to gender.

Through a life history methodology the research was able to focus on the subjective lives of four Welsh women artists and to collaborate with them in the research process to provide new insights about their lives and art careers. A biographical approach was used to write the narrative about the fifth artist who is no longer living. Obstacles to women's careers in art continue to be a concern for the artists. They reported tensions: within the home, in their art training, in attempting to exhibit and gain critical recognition, in their identification as Welsh, in their choice to work in Wales rather than in the leading art centers such as London, and in their choice of art media, genre and content. The central theme of the book is the diversity of women's contributions to the visual culture of Wales.