5 Oct - Alfred Janes, Maker of Pictures

Alfred Janes, Maker of Pictures

Book Launch & Illustrated Talk with Ceri Thomas and Hilly Janes

Join us at the London Welsh Centre on Monday 5 October to celebrate the launch of Alfred Janes, Maker of Pictures, the first-ever account of the life and work of Welsh artist Alfred Janes, published by Parthian.

The evening will feature an illustrated talk by author Ceri Thomas in conversation with Hilly Janes, the artist’s daughter, exploring the remarkable career of an artist whose work was as inventive and unconventional as it was accomplished.

To walk into a gallery of Alfred Janes’s work is to be dazzled not only by his native talent, but by the extraordinary range of his subject matter and the materials he used throughout a lifetime dedicated to art.

Trained at Swansea School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools, Janes began as a classically trained painter before developing into a restless modernist. Throughout his career he experimented with unexpected materials and techniques, including motor oil, marbles, gardening catalogues and shattered windscreen glass.

Ceri Thomas has had unprecedented access to works held in private collections, the artist’s personal archive at the National Library of Wales and hundreds of unpublished letters written to his wife Mary during the Second World War, when Janes was stationed in the Middle East.

The book begins with Janes’s acclaimed 1934 portrait of his close friend Dylan Thomas and follows his work through to his final painting in 1988. Across ten chapters, it brings together a wealth of previously unpublished material and images, offering a fascinating insight into one of Wales’s most unique 20th-century artists.

Dylan Thomas himself was a great admirer of Janes and once described his work in typically colourful fashion:

“Years ago, when he was a student at the Royal Academy of Arts, I shared rooms (and what rooms) with Alfred Janes, painter…”

Books will be available to purchase at the launch, and copies can also be pre-ordered in advance from Parthian Books.

Event Details

Monday 5 October 2026
Bar opens: 6:30pm
Event starts: 7:00pm
Duration: Approximately 2 hours
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Upstairs in the Bar

Please note: This event is upstairs in the bar and the London Welsh Centre currently has no lift access to this area.

We look forward to welcoming you for an evening celebrating the life, work and extraordinary imagination of Alfred Janes.