Owen - The Welsh Western Series

Owen Rhoscomyl — Oil on Canvas

Oil on canvas, 2013
100 × 120 × 4.5 cm

This painting imagines the Welsh drover through the visual language of the classic American Western, bringing together Welsh history, landscape and identity with the mythology of the cowboy.

The central figure is Owen Rhoscomyl, presented here not as a conventional historical portrait, but as a distinctly Welsh Western hero. Mounted on a powerful white horse, armed with a revolver and set against a rugged mountain landscape, he occupies the familiar visual territory of the cinematic cowboy.

The title, “Dial Yn Yr Anial” — Revenge in the Wilderness — deliberately reinforces this Western narrative, while the Welsh language places the imagined hero firmly within a Welsh cultural landscape.

The work forms part of my exploration of the Welsh drover and his place in cultural memory. Livestock droving was an important part of Welsh rural life for centuries, within a wider European tradition of moving livestock over long distances that stretches back around a thousand years or more. Yet the drover has never achieved the extraordinary cultural status given to the American cowboy.

The cowboy, particularly through the great cattle-drive era, has been transformed into a global symbol through film, television, literature and advertising. Here I ask what might happen if we applied that same mythology to a Welsh figure. What would a Welsh cowboy look like, and what stories might we have told about him?

Rather than simply depicting a historical character, the painting deliberately creates an alternative Welsh mythology—a hero from a landscape where the mountains of Wales replace the deserts and plains of the American West.

Made in 2013, the painting is both a playful homage to the Western film poster and a reflection on Welsh identity, cultural memory and the stories we choose to turn into legends.

Shipping: Shipping is not included in the purchase price. Due to the size and nature of the original artwork, shipping will be arranged separately with the purchaser after the painting has been purchased. I will contact you after purchase to discuss the delivery arrangements and cost before shipping.

A substantial original oil painting combining Welsh language, landscape and history with the enduring visual mythology of the Western hero.