South Wales Art Society

During the early 1880's, a small group of both amateur and professional Cardiff based painters would meet occasionally in each other's houses to discuss the methods and practice of painting. In 1887 having garnered support, they made the decision to form a Society and a public meeting was held in Cardiff on February 2nd 1888. Thus The South Wales Art Society and Sketching Club, later to be shortened to The South Wales Art Society, was born. Hugely popular, the initial membership numbered 122 persons and within the first year the numbers had swollen to 277 with 27 patrons. Its founder members included sculptor William Goscombe John and in the early 20th century, the Society had its own art gallery from c. 1900 until c. 1918 and later the National Museum of Wales placed the Turner House art gallery, Penarth, at the Society's disposal for their Annual Exhibition. These continued here until 2002.

More recently, exhibitions have been held at other locations in the Cardiff area. The stated aims of the SWAS are to support and foster art in South Wales by as many varied means as possible. These include the encouragement and promotion of gallery visits, lectures, life classes, demonstrations, workshops, appraisals and exhibitions. The membership of the society today totals around 300, both professional and amateur several members having shown their works at various London societies such as the summer exhibition at the RA, RI and RMS. To celebrate the Millenium For the Millennium, a special demonstration was held at the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff on April 28th 2000. Tom Coates (President of the Pastel Society) painted an oil portrait of the Welsh entertainer, Max Boyce. Today the society holds exhibitions in various venues throughout South Wales, including The Old Library, Cardiff. The Society had David Bellamy, (1933-2019) OBE, author, environmentalist and botanist as its President.