War artist. Sea painter. Mosaicist. Community theatre pioneer. Poet. The achievements of the Welsh woman artist, Ray Howard-Jones, were many and multifaceted. Yet although she was once renowned as one of the most important Welsh artists of the twentieth century, her work has more recently been overlooked and neglected.

Curator and writer, David Moore, wants to set the story straight and his stunning illustrated biography does much to rescue Howard-Jones’s reputation.

At this year’s Monty Lit Fest, he’ll be sharing her life story – from a progressive upbringing in Penarth through her time at the Slade in the 1920s to her artistic relationship with the Pembrokeshire coast and her mosaic murals in Cardiff and Edinburgh – exploring her work and legacy and restoring her to her rightful place as a leading Welsh artist.

David Moore is a writer, researcher, independent curator and museum/gallery consultant with a particular interest in modern and contemporary visual art collection development in Wales. He was curator of Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery between 1992 and 2004, and is the author of Art for Wales (Graffeg, 2020) and, in 2023, Ray Howard-Jones: My Hand is the Voice of the Sea, as well as numerous articles, catalogues and reviews.

Frieda Hughes is a painter and poet. She has written several children’s books, eight collections of poetry and, in 2023, George: A Magpie Memoir. She also writes articles for magazines and newspapers, was The Times Poetry columnist from 2006 to 2008, and has judged numerous poetry competitions, including for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and for the National Poetry Competition. Her poems have appeared in many leading publications such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The London Magazine, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, The Spectator, Tatler, Thumbscrew, and Agenda. She resides in Wales with owls and motorbikes and writes a weekly poem about her week for The Independent online. www.friedahughes.com