Eirian Llwyd (1951 – 29 January 2014) was a Welsh artist and wife of former

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

leader Ieuan Wyn Jones.

Biography

Llwyd was born at Prion near

Denbigh Denbigh ( ; ) is a market town and a community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. It was the original county town of the Denbighshire (historic), historic county of Denbighshire created in 1536. Denbigh's Welsh name () translates to ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. After nursing in Liverpool between 1969-73 she worked as a midwife at St Asaph Hospital. In 1974 she married Ieuan and was supportive of his political career in Parliament, Assembly Member, Leader of Plaid Cymru and Deputy First Minister in the One Wales Government. Llwyd was a proud nationalist and campaigned alongside Cymdeithas yr Iaith in protest for the Welsh language between the 1960s and 1970s. She also promoted women's positions in politics and helped reconfigure Plaid’s constitution in the 1980s to secure women in Plaid’s major committees. Along with her charity work, Llwyd established the Rhyl branch of Women’s Aid in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2001, Llwyd focused on art and graduated at Cardiff Institute specializing in the field of print. Thereafter she was regularly exhibited in Wales and abroad. Her success helped co-establish a gallery called The Original Print Place, to bring promote a number of other Welsh artists. At the age of 63, Llwyd died at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor after a short battle with cancer. In January 2015 it was announced a Memorial Fund would be set up in her name to provide grants for new Welsh artists that specialize in printmaking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Llwyd, Eirian People from Denbigh 1951 births 2014 deaths 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century Welsh women artists 21st-century Welsh women artists Deaths from cancer in Wales Welsh printmakers British women printmakers