Ray Howard-Jones

Howard-Jones was born in Lambourn, Berkshire, in 1903. Her father was a vet and racehorse trainer who enlisted in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps during World War I. He served on the Western Front rising to the rank of Colonel but died in 1921 from the effects of a war-time gas attack. Both her parents were Welsh and, after they split up, at the age of two Ray Howard-Jones went to live at her grandfather's house in Penarth. She also worked as a designer and creative director for East Moor's Theatre in Splott, near to the Cardiff Docks. ==World War II==

In July 1942 Howard-Jones submitted 11 drawings to the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), which were not purchased and indeed were censored for the duration of the conflict. She submitted further drawings in November 1942 and July 1943 which were purchased and led to a commission to produce paintings of the fortifications on the islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel. ==Post-war career==

In 1946 Howard-Jones spent some time in Scotland at the art school run by James Cowie at Hospitalfield House. A love affair developed between Howard-Jones and Cowie and his nude study of her and her, more abstract, tribute to him are both in the Glasgow Museums collection. For nine summers, between 1949 and 1958, Howard-Jones and Moore served as the resident caretakers of Skomer Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire. From 1959 Howard-Jones and Moore returned to Pembrokeshire on a regular basis, spending extended periods in a simple cottage at Martin's Haven. In 1959 Howard-Jones had a solo show at the Leicester Galleries in London. Over the next ten years she was to have five shows there. She also exhibited with the Royal Society of British Artists and with the Royal Cambrian Academy. In all her work featured in almost thirty solo shows in Britain and her work is represented in galleries in both Australia and the United States. The Welsh Arts Council toured two retrospectives of her work, first in 1974 and again in 1983 and 1984. The Rocket Press organised a life-time retrospective of her work in 1993, which Howard-Jones attended and included works she had produced in her late eighties. A volume of her poetry, Heart of the Rock: Poems by Ray Howard-Jones was published at the same time. She had a deep religious faith and, late in her life, took vows as an oblate at an Anglican Benedictine community. ==An Eye for the People==

Howard-Jones' 1959 mosaic, "An Eye for the People", was created in Italy and installed on Thomson House, Cardiff, after the artist had won a Wales-wide competition in 1958. The 35-feet high mosaic included a giant blue eye which represented the role of the Western Mail newspaper in Wales. After almost 50 years the mosaic and the building were demolished in 2008 before the Twentieth Century Society was able to save it. The Society described it as "one of the finest post-war mosaics in Britain". The only surviving mosaic by Howard-Jones is her 1965 altarpiece in Edinburgh. ==References==