Elin Vaughan Crowley
Elin is a Printmaker. She she loves printmaking mainly because she can get her hands dirty, which is a visible sign that she has made something. When Elin was younger, she spent hours in the shed on the farm with her Dad, fiddling with machines, vices, saws and oily stuff. Printmaking is a manifestation of her ambition to be a mechanic, to understand machines and processes, and to create things.
It became clear whilst at high school that Art was the only thing that really interested her. On her GNVQ Art and design course at Coleg Meirion Dwyfor, Dolgellau, she was taught by some of the most influential Welsh female artists of the time; Catrin Williams, Luned Rhys Parry, Christine Mills, Mary Wells and Pegi Gruffydd. As a farmer’s daughter finding her way in the art world, she couldn’t have wished for better tutors who understood and encouraged her.
Going on to study Fine Art at UWIC, Cardiff, she was able to focus on developing her printmaking skills and created a body of work based on the concept of bringing families together by the dinner table, eating together, talking, and putting the world to rights.
Currently, she is doing an MA in Fine Art at Aberystwyth University, and continuing to develop her lino printing, collagraph work. Elin is focusing her ideas on Welsh people and landscapes, in particular the strong, practical women of rural Wales.
Elin is a director of Ennyn CIC, a community interest company in the Machynlleth area who offer creative workshops in schools and communities. Ennyn strives to make creativity inclusive and accessible whilst bringing people together. Their projects vary from art workshops on zoom celebrating native wildflowers, ukulele workshops for all the family, painting and drawing workshops, mural making, printmaking and graffiti. She runs Ennyn CIC with her colleague and friend, Nicky Arscott.
WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT ORIEL DAVIES
We have worked with Oriel Davies over the last 2 years offering the Winter of Wellbeing and Kind to the Mindworkshops for children and young people, with a focus on wellbeing. Our ethos coincides with Oriel Davies’, which means we aim for the same outcomes of providing a positive, fluid, creative experience for young people. This makes collaborating a real pleasure and we are so excited to be continuing and developing a relationship with the gallery.
A FAVOURITE CULTURAL ARTIFACT
Without a doubt, the flask. What is not to love about an item that enables you to have tea, anywhere you want at any time. I particularly like drinking tea whilst sitting in the boot of a car on a Welsh pass, or on top of a mountain after a long, tiring walk.
