Kevin Sinnott (b.1947)

He remained in London throughout the 1970s and 1980s during which he was taken on by major London galleries including Bernard Jacobsen Gallery, with whom he had a sell-out exhibition in New York in 1987. There are few modern Welsh artists who have had Kevin’s level of international success. Kevin is inspired by the community and characters which colour the South Wales valleys.

Kevin Sinnott returned to live in Wales in 1995 and quickly established himself at the forefront of the resurgence in Welsh painting. He was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy in 2007. He lives near Pontycymer, close to his hometown of Bridgend and now runs a gallery on the main street of the village.

Following his successful London and US exhibitions Kevin Sinnott’s work was acquired by major collections including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, British Council, Royal College of Art London, the British Museum and the National Museum of Wales where his monumental canvas, ‘Running Away with the Hairdresser’ has proved to be one of the National Museum and Galleries of Wales’s most popular acquisitions.

‘Running Away with the Hairdresser’ is an icon of Welsh art and can be spoken about in the same sentence as Salem by Sydney Curnow Vosper. It is the Welsh painting of its age which I would recommend anyone who has an interest in Welsh art to view. I, like many others, will pay my respects to it on each visit to the National Museum.

Kevin’s work is often ambitious in size, bold and confident in brushstrokes and typically the colours are vibrant and bright, and one sees that the sun shines frequently in the South Wales valleys. This is perhaps contrary to the perception we are supplied with by other notable South Wales Valleys artists. If there has ever been a traditional ‘South Wales Valleys School’ of paintings in the twentieth century, then typically the colours would be dark, the locations foreboding, and the people look oppressed. But for me, there is more of a truth in Kevin Sinnott’s work, not the rather melancholy perception of a place stuck in time. The paintings of Kevin Sinnott are dynamic, they show the valleys to be as they are - full of colour, the characters are free, full of life and with plenty of kitchen sink melodrama going on.

Currently we hold the auction record for Kevin Sinnott’s work at £11,500. Below is a selection of Kevin’s work that we have sold in the last few years with auction prices noted.

Should you have work by Kevin Sinnott that you would like us to value, then please email and image and we would be very pleased to see it and provide and opinion. Opinions are given without cost or obligation.