Thursday
18
April
Llanfair artist wins £25,000 prize
05/12/2010 @ 09:41
Eleri Mills, who has won this year's Creative Wales Ambassador Award and the £25,000 cheque after she was nominated for the award by Ruthin Craft Centre with whom she has a long-standing working relationship.
"The title of Creative Ambassador encapsulates what I believe in." said Eleri.
"I see myself as not only a visual artist, but as someone who is interested in all aspects of the arts in Wales."
Next summer the centre will provide Eleri with a studio workshop space which will allow her to contribute towards its education programme.
The award will also allow Eleri to take up an invitation to be a visiting artist at Columbia University, New York, in 2012.
Following this, her work will be featured at the Sculpture Objects and Functional Art New York 2012 exposition.
Her work evokes landscape and the enduring history and feel of place, time and myth.
"Winning this award is the pinnacle of my 35 years work as an artist," said Eleri, 55, who grew up on her family's farm at Llangadfan.
"Growing up on a farm was a privilege because you see the landscape in a different way to people who visit a place, it instils a deep sense of belonging. You learn how to live in harmony with nature and in tune with the passing seasons."
Eleri's work consists of both hand-stitched pieces and mixed media paintings.
"But while the form of the work can vary, the subject matter has always been inspired by landscape," said Eleri, whose mother influenced her interest in the bardic traditions of Wales.
"Montgomeryshire has a rich tradition of folk culture and I see the culture and landscape as being intertwined in my work," she added.
Eleri's next project is an exhibition of 30 pieces of her work at London's Thackeray Gallery.
"I see my work as an ongoing adventure and I have no option but to carry on working, even though I have never found it an easy process," she said.
The Creative Wales Ambassador Award was one of 19 prizes worth more than £330,000 announced by the Arts Council of Wales.
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