Michael Edmonds (9 April 1926 – 30 March 2014) was a British artist and architect born in Dorset, England but with strong connections to Wales. He was a co-founder of the

56 Group Wales The 56 Group Wales ( cy, Grŵp 56 Cymru) is an artists' organisation founded in Wales in 1956, with the aim of promoting Welsh Modernist art and artists. The name was originally simply the 56 Group: "Wales" was added in 1967, in response to a fe ...

Life and work

Edmonds, an only child, grew up in the countryside near Wareham, Dorset. He was educated at Kings School, a boarding school in Somerset, then studied at the Royal West of England School of Architecture, Bristol. As a ' Bevin boy' working in the coal mines to aid the war effort, he came to

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. In 1951 he married Thelma Seager, from Cardiff, and they settled in

Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...

to bring up a family. As an architect Edmonds worked in South Wales (initially for the National Coal Board in Cardiff),Moore, David, ''A Taste of the Avant-garde: 56 Group Wales'', page 9 London and private practice in Kent until his retirement in 1979. He had also studied art at

Cardiff College of Art Cardiff School of Art & Design (CSAD) is one of the five schools that comprise Cardiff Metropolitan University. It originated as the Cardiff School of Art in 1865. History Cardiff School of Art & Design opened in 1865 as the Cardiff School of S ...

during the late 1940s and subsequently created a number of experimental constructions of modern materials (such as fibreglass). In 1956 he co-founded the '' 56 Group'' in Cardiff with artists Eric Malthouse and

David Tinker ''A Message from the Falklands: The Life and Gallant Death of David Tinker'' is a book about Lieutenant David Hugh Russell Tinker (14 March 1957 – 12 June 1982), a Royal Navy supply officer who was killed in action during the Falklands War. H ...

. The Group intended to promote Welsh radical and abstract modern artMoore, David, ''A Taste of the Avant-garde: 56 Group Wales'', pages 6–7 (and successfully did so into the 21st century). Edmonds continued to receive commissions for church fonts, murals and crosses until the late 1960s, when he had to prioritise his architecture work. Notable artworks included a sculpture in metal, resin and fibreglass for Penarth's Trinity Methodist Church and a 9-metre ceramic mural (1959) for the

pneumoconiosis Pneumoconiosis is the general term for a class of interstitial lung disease where inhalation of dust ( for example, ash dust, lead particles, pollen grains etc) has caused interstitial fibrosis. The three most common types are asbestosis, silicos ...

unit at Llandough Hospital. An oil painting, ''Bessemer'' (1955) is now in the collection of the University of South Wales. He returned to Wales in 1984 to live in Montgomery, Powys. In 2001 he joined the

Watercolour Society of Wales The Royal Watercolour Society of Wales ( cy, Cymdeithas Frenhinol Dyfrlliw Cymru) is an association of watercolor artists in Wales founded in 1959. History The Watercolour Society of Wales was founded in 1959 by six artists in the Cardiff area. ...

. In 2013 his memoirs, ''War Underground'', recounting his time in the mines near

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...

during World War II, written in the 1940s then left for 70 years in a drawer, were published by the South Wales Record Society.

Sources

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Michael 1926 births 2014 deaths 20th-century English architects Alumni of Cardiff School of Art and Design Artists from Dorset Members of the 56 Group Wales Bevin Boys