This year, three of the six members of the Pembrokeshire St. David's Fine Art and Craft Group have Japanese connections! Riitta Sinkkonnen-Davies, the hand weaver from Freystrop, and Steve Thompson, furniture maker/designer from Crymych, are representing Wales at the 2004 Japan Ambiente, the big international interior design and lifestyle show in Tokyo. Riitta, with hangings, woven pictures, mats and throws, will make quite a splash with her consummate craftsmanship and colour sense. Steve's innovative and original work, including maps, mirrors and trays, mostly in plain birch ply, will certainly cause a stir. He has already had pieces purchased for the Welsh international offices in the Chrysler Building, New York. Neil Richardson, ceramiscist, is being funded by the Arts Council to actually visit Japan this November to travel and study - a trip that will expand his interest in unusual glazes and surfaces for his raku pots. They will be exhibiting their work this summer at the Cathedral Hall, St. David's alongside three other artists/craftsmen. Among these is Susan Sands, a painter and printmaker, always looking for new directions in her colourful bold work. An etcher and lithographer, she pushes printmaking to extremes. Looking at a landscape or a still life, she experiments until she finds the right media which will work for a particular subject, drawing for colour, on her experience of travelling in India. Another exciting artist drawing inspiration from the East is Narberth designer/jeweller Sara Lloyd Morris. Her travels in India have given her the opportunity to buy gemstones, which enhance the richly patinated turquoise surfaces of her earrings and pendants in copper and silver. She loves to take 'a flat piece of metal' and bring it to life using form, texture and colour. Facing a challenge like this is something in which wood turner Paul Kay delights. Looking at the natural shape of a piece of wood he decides what lies within it and how to show its natural spalting and colour to advantage. He works in a cowshed alone and preferably unwatched, turning his lyrical pieces and bringing them to a high degree of finish - the largest ever is a shallow bowl two-and-a-half feet across. Visitors to the Cathedral Hall, St. David's, will be able to view and buy unique work by these artists between Monday and September 3. The exhibition is open from 10 am to 5.30 pm daily except Sundays. On the first day, August 9, it opens at 2 pm. Admission is 25 pence for adults, children free.
