Portraits of defiant suffragists by Welsh artist Seren Morgan Jones

Date
31 March 2015

With the centenary of British women receiving the partial vote coming up shortly, artist Seren Morgan Jones decided it was time to focus on the Welsh suffragists who helped to make it happen. “I think it is important to show that there is more to Wales and its history than coal mining, rugby and men,” she explains, “and to draw people’s attention to the fact Welsh women were so involved in the fight for women’s rights.”

So she made Portraits of Protesters, a series of paintings imagining how these women, whose names came from historical records, might have looked. “There are many famous, well-documented individuals such as Lady Rhondda, Rachel Barrett and Alice Abadam, but I also wanted to look at the unnamed women who made up the masses of the movement," she continues. “The suffragist movement also had very successful PR campaigns and called on artists and graphic designers to create their posters etc. So I decided to pretend that I’d been asked as an artist today to portray them. Hopefully some of them would have liked what I’ve done!”

Seren adds a contemporary twist to the portraits but her approach is anchored in the documents she uncovered during her research, and the amalgamation of the two makes for an invigorating yet authentic-looking collection.

Seren Morgan Jones: Portraits of Protesters will run from 3 April until 2 May at Gallery Ten, Cardiff.

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Seren Morgan Jones: Gladys Williams

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Seren Morgan Jones: Jessie Jones

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Seren Morgan Jones: Mary Sophie Allen

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Seren Morgan Jones: Mrs Maud Harries

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Seren Morgan Jones: Rose Davies

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Seren Morgan Jones: Val Terrill

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About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

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